Fair Pay Act Passes the Senate, Only Men Vote No

By CJP | January 23, 2009

Janes, we here at CJP are strictly non-partisan and not overly girly, but we couldn’t help but notice that the only senators who voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act yesterday were Republican men.   All of the Republican women, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski, plus Arlen Specter, voted yes.  (See how your senators voted HERE.)

We can’t tell you why the votes broke that way, but we can tell you more about the bill, which will likely be the first law that Barack Obama signs into law.

• The bill is named after Lilly Ledbetter (at left), a former Goodyear employee who sued the company after she learned she had been paid less than men at the plant who had the same job.
• Ledbetter won her suit against Goodyear in an Alabama court, but the Supreme Court struck down the decision, saying that the law required Ledbetter to sue Goodyear within six months of her first paycheck.  Since Ledbetter worked at Goodyear for more than 20 years, and did not find out about other salaries until she’d been there for nearly two decades, she contended she could not have sued Goodyear any sooner.
• The bill that the Senate passed says the statute of limitations applies to every paycheck or instance of discrimination, rather than just the first.
• The Senate bill was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), while the House bill was sponsored by Rep. George Miller, championed by Nancy Pelosi, and includes a bill called the “Paycheck Fairness Act,” sponsored by Rep. Rosa deLauro.
• Republicans objecting to the bill said it would encourage frivolous lawsuits and be a boon to trial lawyers.

The House and Senate bills now go to a committee to have differences resolved, before heading to the White House for Obama’s signature.

Topics: Congress, Economy, Women in Politics

One Response to “Fair Pay Act Passes the Senate, Only Men Vote No”

1. Regine Says:
   January 23rd, 2009 at 1:51 pm

   Thank God that someone has finally proposed this. My mom hasn’t been getting the proper pay and she’s been working in the same job for almost 30 years.
   And of course, it’s Republican men! They’re so stuck in their old backwards ways that they can’t see women and equally as competent as they are.

   And props to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison! She’s done Texas good!

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