As the Obama administration continues whining about the non-existent conservative “War on Women,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) warned Republicans not to reject the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is scheduled for a vote today. “If these Republicans today … can’t even stand for equality for the same work, that’s, like, outrageous,” she argued.
One hopes that the Republicans wouldn’t want to be, like, outrageous.
The Act claims it would better align key Equal Pay Act defenses with those in Title VII, bring remedies available under the Equal Pay Act into line with remedies available under other civil rights laws, make the requirements for class action lawsuits under the Equal Pay Act match those of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and protect employees who share their own salary information at work from retaliation by an employer.
In reality, the Act does more than that – it puts the burden on employers to show that any pay differentials don’t spring from sexism. Employers would face unlimited punitive damages. Class-action lawsuits would become commonplace.
McCaskill continued, “It seems kind of weird to me. This is not an exotic idea. This is, I think, common sense.” She argued that corporate boards are male-dominated:
“Corporate governance is a huge issue too. We don’t have women on these corporate boards. More than half of the students in law school are women, more than half of the women, I think, in medical school now are women,” she said. “We still have not been able to move into those positions in our country that are really directing traffic among that 1 percent, and that’s where women have to break through.”
There’s only one problem with McCaskill’s rhetoric: the Democrats have had control of the Senate for four years, and the bill was strangely absent until the election year of 2012.
Hmm. Maybe this is, like, an election year con job.
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