Women Workers Less Likely to Have Secure Retirement
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Women workers are less likely than men to have enough money to retire comfortably because they generally live longer than men and earn less on the job, according to a new report. It will take a three-pronged approach to help women have a secure retirement, the report says: traditional pensions, supplemental 401(k)-type savings and Social Security.
“Shattering the Retirement Glass Ceiling: Women Need a Three-Legged Stool,” released this month by the non-profit research group National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), found that because of her longer life expectancy, a woman with an annual income of $50,000 would need to save $1,000 more toward retirement every year than her male counterpart to have an equal retirement experience. Yet, more than 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed, women in the United States still earn only 78 cents for every dollar men earn—even with similar education, skills and experience—and African American and Hispanic women earn even less. The wage difference makes saving money more difficult for many women.
Lilly Ledbetter Watches as Obama Signs Fair Pay Act
With Lilly Ledbetter looking on, President Barack Obama this morning signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Said Obama during the ceremony in the White House East Room:
In signing this bill today, I intend to send a clear message: That making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone. That there are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it’s not just unfair and illegal—but bad for business—to pay someone less because of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.
After working nearly 20 years at a Goodyear tire plant, Ledbetter discovered she had been paid significantly less than men doing the same job. A federal jury ruled in her favor but Goodyear appealed, and in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—had no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination after more than 180 days after the first paycheck, even if she didn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill on Its Way to President Obama
It’s been a long and bumpy road, but women and other workers who suffer pay discrimination are about to find a smoother path to justice now that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is on its way to President Barack Obama’s desk.
The House, this afternoon, passed the bill for the final time 250-177. The bill is named after the Alabama woman who, after working nearly 20 years at a Goodyear tire plant, discovered she had been paid significantly less than men doing the same job.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act One Step Closer to Becoming Law
Last night after the Senate passed (61-36) the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act, overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied justice to Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—Ledbetter told reporters:
When you win a battle, you’ve sometimes lost battles along the way. We knew we would get here. When right is right, it usually has a way of working out.
Ledbetter thought she had won her battle several years ago when a federal jury found she had been the victim of pay discrimination for nearly 20 years at an Alabama Goodyear tire plant where she was paid less than the men doing the same work.
But the Supreme Court ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination if she—or any worker—waits more than 180 days after the first paycheck, even if she—or any worker—doesn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later, as was the case with Ledbetter.
House Passes Two Major Working Family Bills: Fair Pay Act, Paycheck Fairness Act
Lilly Ledbetter says she knows she’ll never recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars she lost from her paychecks because of nearly 20 years of pay discrimination. But today the U.S. House of Representatives, with a big push by Ledbetter’s refusal to go quietly away, took the first step to make sure millions of other women don’t suffer the same fate.
By a vote of 247-171, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act (H.R. 11) overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—justice. Then shortly after, lawmakers added some new teeth to equal pay laws and passed the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) by a 256-163 vote. Both bills now go to the U.S. Senate.
Confirmation Hearings Today on Solis for Labor Secretary
As Congress holds confirmation hearings on the nomination of Hilda Solis as secretary of labor this morning, we will get our first extended look at how she plans to return the U.S. Department of Labor to its primary mission of protecting the lives, wages and rights of working people.
Solis, a four-term U.S. House member from California’s 32nd District, was tapped last month by President-elect Barack Obama to be his secretary of labor. As today’s hearings before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee get under way, we will bring you updates.
As Obama said repeatedly throughout the campaign, the Bush administration and outgoing Labor Secretary Elaine Chao spent eight years attacking workers’ rights, strong workplace health and safety rules and unions while they carried the water for Big Business. Obama summed up the Chao regime this way:
Remember, this is supposed to be the Department Labor, not the Department of Management.
Obama, Congress Put Working Families at Heart of Economic Plan
President-elect Barack Obama and Congress aren’t wasting any time setting the tone that the nation’s working families are at the center of their efforts to revitalize the economy and rebuild the middle class.
Obama is meeting today and throughout the week with congressional leaders to shape an economic recovery package that focuses on job creation, tax relief for middle-class families, help for the unemployed and aid for states caught in the grip of a tightening fiscal crisis.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will vote on two bills to ensure equal pay for women and reverse the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely restricted the rights of women to combat pay discrimination through the courts.
In his weekly radio address, Obama said the economic package—The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan—aims to
not only create jobs in the short-term, but spur economic growth and competitiveness in the long term….We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan—which is to create 3 million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.
2008 in Review: McCain Revealed and McCain Reviled
Here’s the second part in our series taking a look back at 2008. Check out Part 1 here.
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March-April
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The job loss hits kept coming—63,000 in February and 83,000 in March. But President Bush and congressional Republicans kept up their fight against extending unemployment insurance benefits to workers who run out of benefits before finding new work in a crumbling economy.
In April, more than 400 central labor councils begin dedicating their monthly meetings to educating and mobilizing their members around health care reform for the coming elections. Most saw huge turnouts.
Union members continued making endorsements in the primaries, many selecting Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) or Barack Obama (D-Ill). But they were unified in their opposition to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and showed up at campaign stop after campaign stop urging him to meet with workers. He never did.
Meanwhile the AFL-CIO launched McCain Revealed, a website detailing McCain’s long anti-working family career and dangerous policy proposals.
Fair Pay Hearing Shows Why Pay Discrimination Isn’t OK
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When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in 2007 that Lilly Ledbetter waited too long to file a lawsuit after experiencing 20 years of pay discrimination by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Ledbetter says it sent a “loud and clear” message to Big Business.
With regard to pay discrimination, there are lots of other companies out there that got the Supreme Court’s message loud and clear: They will not be punished for discriminating, if they do it long enough and cover it up well enough.
She testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday at a hearing examining pay discrimination and barriers to equal pay for equal work. Last year, after the court’s decision, the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that, in effect, would reverse the ruling. But Senate Republicans, with the support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have blocked Senate action.
