Posted on 04/24/2007 10:57:09 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 04/24/2007 Pelosi: Working Women and Their Families Deserve Equal Pay for Equal Work
Washington, D.C. Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement this morning at an Education and Labor Committee hearing on equal pay:
I want to thank the Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller for convening this critical hearing today on Strengthening the Middle Class: Ensuring Equal Pay for Women.
I also want to recognize the leadership of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a champion for equal pay in the Congress, who for 10 years has been introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Over the last four decades, we have made strides in closing the wage gap between women and men. But it has not been enough. Working women now earn about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. The earnings for African-American women are 68 percent of mens earnings; the earnings of Hispanic women are 57 percent of mens earnings; and the earnings of Asian-American women are 88 percent of mens earnings.
Today, almost four full months into the new year, women throughout the country mark the date to which they have worked just so their wages equal the same amount paid to men in the previous year. That is because it takes the average woman 16 months to earn what men earn in one calendar year. This is not just and does not reflect appropriately the contributions they make.
For many, closing the wage gap is not just a matter of equity, but survival. Many low-wage women workers are the source of sole support for their families. Economic equity and self-sufficiency are essential to achieving the American dream. It is outrageous that women begin the quest to achieve that dream already at a deficit.
Working women and their families deserve equal pay for equal work and I am proud that the Education and Labor Committee, led by Chairman Miller are addressing this issue today.
ping.
Really neat book........
Wage differentials have existed since they started keeping wage data, which suggests that there is something fundamental in the market place that persists the wage differential. Even older studies by Parnes, Fleischer, and others show that labor force participation rates and persistence explains most of the wage differential. Historically, women have a weaker attachment to the labor force and losing them to raise a family or to drop out after the family expenditures are met (e.g., saving for college educations) is a major factor for the wage differences.
While everyone can relate a story of just the opposite for such-and-such a person, on average, it is the looser attachment to the labor force that helps perpetuate the wage differentials. In typical Dem fashion, Pelosi and her ilk think they can outperform the market place. She has hubris on a scale never before seen by man nor woman.
Thats the whole problem. They like to use raw data without controlling for all the variables that need to be controlled for, such as experience, education, hours (men work about 10 hours a week more than women), willingness to do unpopular stuff ...
Once you do that there is not much difference left.
But as social scientists acknowledge, it's not inconceivable that men push harder for raises. Are women automatically entitled to the fruits of their efforts to prevent employers from being hit with lawsuits? Even when the women have done nothing to seek raises themselves?
Yes...she DOES do squat.
What a disaster this would be. Folks, men and woman alike, should be paid for performance. Any two people working the same job, it should be apparant to their direct supervisor who has more zeal for the job, who is more effective, who has more potential and likely to realize it.
She got torqued off that her family wasn't making less money?
Pelosi should resign.
I was in Romania last week and there everyone is paid pretty much evenly, but women get TWO YEARS PAID materity leave. Men don’t get this....I think that is unfair. lol. The poor Italian women only get six months up to a year. They are ripped off. lol.
I made that point to her myself.
In reality, they are paid what they are willing to take.
Just as long as you don't call her nappy headed.
Excellent questions - with the answer being that eventually a Republican will be in the White House (or in charge of Congress) and the DemoncRats will need an issue to beat their chests about. So, why fix a problem when you can use it politically?
"it's alive"
Here we go again ...
lets pay everyone the same amount of money for different abilities. Sheer nonsense! People have different abilities and should be paid accordingly regardless of gender or class. It’s just a nasty fact of life.
I went to grad school with a nurse manager for a major healthcare organization. She said her male nurses were far more ambitions, on average, than her female ones. They took classes and indicated far more interest in improving skill sets and gaining the experience necessary to move up the career ladder in the company.
She was no conservative and had experienced tons of pretty hair-raising discrimination (mostly from doctors)over the decades. However, she thought that gender based income data and organizational goals were bogus, based upon her observations.
As a generalization, she found her male nurse staffers to be more intrinsitcally interested in career advancement, they derived more satisfaction from higher incomes and experienced more frustration when they didn’t advance.
It is amazing that this is a big “N0 DUH” for most people, except for Pelosi and her ilk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.