Fair Pay Act

[telcoman]

I wonder if John McCain will show up to vote?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"BRILLIANT Move: Dems to Force McCain Vote on Fair Pay Act by Glic Fri Sep 05, 2008 at 05:28:28 AM PDTOn, SNAP!

The Democrats are graciously going to allow John McCain to put his vote where is mouth is. After - bizarrely - accusing Democrats of sexism for having the abject temerity to ask Sarah any questions, the Democrats plan to reintroduce the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this month. Remember:

John McCain was AGAINST fair pay for women this summer"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lets see if he puts money for equal pay for woman where his mouth is?

He can start shaking up Washington on this one.

Telcoman

[AZhitman]

I'm against a governmental mandate that tells corporations how to spend their money too.

Vote NO again, John. And bring Ms. Palin with you.

[telcoman]

I'm against a governmental mandate that tells corporations how to spend their money too.

Vote NO again, John. And bring Ms. Palin with you.

Greg

I removed my comment as I forgot you lost your wife.

Sorry

[AZhitman]

No problem, I'm a big boy. And not fragile.

[Soravia]

I support fair wages for all sexes. At the same time, I wouldn't go for ANY bill without reading down to every letter and fine print.Usually there are a bunch of porks as well as clauses and loop holes that can be abused.

Still, there should be a simple but hard to abuse bill for fair pay.

[srellim234]

I don't know why McCain would see it as a problem. Congress always exempts themselves from those types of laws so he could continue to discriminate.

[ishkabibble]

I'm against a governmental mandate that tells corporations how to spend their money too.

Vote NO again, John. And bring Ms. Palin with you.

I dunno, my interpretation of this bill is that all it does is clarify the statute of limitations on the Civil Rights Act. How does it tell corporations how to spend their money?

[AZhitman]

Seems to me it was drafted by the Department of Redundancy Department.

There are already protections in place. More rules, more restrictions.

[telcoman]

No problem, I'm a big boy. And not fragile.

OK, Would your late wife have approved your post advocating unequal pay for women?

What about all your hot current gf's?

Women performing the same job as a male deserve the same rate of pay.

One of the advantages of Unions and job classifications is it eliminates favoritism. In union free environments employees are usually prohibited from discussing salaries. There are now many web sites where salaries are discussed and it can get embarrassing and hard to justify for companies when this information leaks out.

Freedom of Information Act

I just love it

Telcoman

[ishkabibble]

Seems to me it was drafted by the Department of Redundancy Department.

There are already protections in place. More rules, more restrictions.

The good ol' righties on the Supreme Court just decided that equal pay protections expire with each paycheck. So you would be fine with getting screwed over for years, then only being able to recoup a tiny bit of pay?

All the amendment does is change the statute of limitations.

[AZhitman]

Do NOT twist my words. My post was not "advocating unequal pay for women. Trust me, i'm well aware of the restrictions and limitations on employers when it comes to equality. Don't distort what I posted to suit your skewed viewpoint.

I can't speak for her, Howie. But she leaned far more to the right on economic and corporate issues that I.

Her views were fairly centrist-to-left on social issues, and while she opposed abortion she supported a woman's right to choose.

She, as well as most women I speak with, are not interested in reying on Uncle Sam to make sure their employer does the right thing... They'd prefer to work hard, make themselves "irreplaceable" and ensure HIGHER pay than their male counterparts.

There are other remedies for this issue already in existence... but if all it does is remove the SOL (thanks ish), then I'm fine with that.

[audtatious]

We all know where Obama stands on Fair Pay based upon his words, but what about his actions? Why, here is an article of Obama in action on Fair Pay:

---------------------------------------------------------------

Obama's for Equal Pay, Yet Pays Female Staffers Less Than MalesMonday, June 30, 2008By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - While Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has vowed to make pay equity for women a top priority if elected president, an analysis of his Senate staff shows that women are outnumbered and out-paid by men.

That is in contrast to Republican presidential candidate John McCain's Senate office, where women, for the most part, out-rank and are paid more than men.

Obama spoke in Albuquerque, N.M. last week about his commitment to the issue and his support of a Senate bill to make it easier to sue an employer for pay discrimination.

"Mr. McCain is an honorable man, we respect his service. But when you look at our records and our plans on issues that matter to working women, the choice could not be clearer," Obama told the audience in New Mexico, a voter-swing state. "It starts with equal pay. Sixty-two percent of working women in America earn half or more than of their family's income. But women still earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2008. You'd think that Washington would be united it its determination to fight for equal pay."

He continued, saying that he is proud to have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which would extend the limit on how long an employee can wait before suing an employer for pay discrimination.

The legislation was named after Lilly Ledbetter, who was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber's plant in Gadsden, Ala. She sued for pay discrimination before retiring after 19 years because she had made $6,500 less per year than the lowest paid male supervisor.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out her case, saying she waited too long to file a complaint. The court said that under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, an employee must sue within 180 days of a decision regarding pay if alleged discrimination is involved. The bill sought to change the law, but Democrats could not muster the needed 60 votes to override a Republican filibuster.

Obama voted for the equal pay litigation bill in April. McCain was campaigning that day and did not vote. But he has expressed opposition to the legislation, fearing it would open the door to too much litigation.

On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That's according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama's Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one -- Obama's administrative manager -- was a woman.

The average pay for the 33 men on Obama's staff (who earned more than $23,000, the lowest annual salary paid for non-intern employees) was $59,207. The average pay for the 31 women on Obama's staff who earned more than $23,000 per year was $48,729.91. (The average pay for all 36 male employees on Obama's staff was $55,962; and the average pay for all 31 female employees was $48,729. The report indicated that Obama had only one paid intern during the period, who was a male.)

McCain, an Arizona senator, employed a total of 69 people during the reporting period ending in the fall of 2007, but 23 of them were interns. Of his non-intern employees, 30 were women and 16 were men. After excluding interns, the average pay for the 30 women on McCain's staff was $59,104.51. The 16 non-intern males in McCain's office, by comparison, were paid an average of $56,628.83.

The Obama campaign did not respond to written questions submitted on the matter Thursday by Cybercast News Service .

During his Albuquerque speech, Obama criticized McCain for supporting the Supreme Court ruling on the pay-equity issue.

"Sen. McCain thinks the Supreme Court got it right," Obama said. "He opposed the Fair Pay Restoration Act. He suggested that the reason women don't have equal pay isn't discrimination on the job - it's because they need more education and training. That's just totally wrong."

Obama continued, "Lilly Ledbetter's problem was not that she was somehow unqualified or unprepared for higher-paying positions. She most certainly was and by all reports was an excellent employee. Her problem was that her employer paid her less than men doing the exact same work."

[hannibal]

Regardless of laws already in place and the new laws being proposed, discrimination still occurs. I wish there was a better way to enforce fair pay laws.

My only experience in the work force has been with a federal govt agency. There, everyone in the same grade earns the same pay. While this would be extremely difficult for corporate America to adopt, I encourage the idea.

[AZhitman]

"The Obama campaign did not respond"

OK, telco and Bob. I'll assume you'll be calling for a response? After all, this is VERY relevant, perhaps much more so than the questions you're demanding Palin answer... After all, this is work-related, hers are PERSONAL.

I'll await your scathing criticism of the Obama camp.

[audtatious]

Regardless of laws already in place and the new laws being proposed, discrimination still occurs. I wish there was a better way to enforce fair pay laws.

Jobs in the US are "at will" which means if you don't like it you can go somewhere else. It is well known in Corp-US world that the longer you stay somewhere the less salary you will make in comparisson to someone who changes companies every 3-5 years. This is specially true in technical fields where you get a yearly raise but not necessarily up to par with what you have learned or training you have received while on the job.

I work with a wide range of clients and have seen both sides. Some of the staff have been at the companies for 20+ years while in some cases I have actually worked with the same person whom I had worked with on other projects while they were at another company altogether. Of these you have those who are comfortable in their position even though they know they could go somewhere else for more pay and you have those who will "follow the pay". Without looking at the details of the Lilly Ledbetter case, I have my suspicions where she would fall in those two cases.

Regardless, there should be equal pay based on the job at hand regardless of gender. The only challenge I see with setting that standard is that women in general, being the care giver and baby machine, tend to not work as many hours overall as a male does. While this is really not an issue in regards to an hourly-wage position (less work = less pay) it can be completely different in regards to salaried positions and I'm on the fence as how I view fixing that particular issue.