“Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure intended to overturn a Supreme Court decision limiting pay discrimination suits in a politically charged vote certain to be replayed in the presidential and Congressional campaigns.”
From today’s New York Times (Republican Senators Block Pay Discrimination Measure)

Yesterday, Republican senators once again made it harder for women to overcome pay discrimination by preventing a measure known as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Impeccable timing: The vote on a measure supporting equal pay occurred the same week that we commemorate Equal Pay Day. It was marked this year on April 22 because that date represents how far into 2008 women must work just to be paid the same amount men received in 2007. That’s because women in the United States are paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.

The act would reverse a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision dismissing a suit by Lilly Ledbetter, an employee for 19 years at a Goodyear Tire plant in Alabama. Her suit alleged she was paid less than her male counterparts. “They treated me like a second-class citizen not only when I worked, but for the rest of my life,” Ledbetter, now retired, said yesterday, referring to the fact that the inequity in pay also affected her pension and Social Security.

Noted by Raising Kaine: “John McCain was conveniently absent for the vote, although he says he would have voted against it if he had been there doing his job like he’s supposed to be.”

It’s been 45 years since equal pay became the law, and working women still are not paid as much as men for the same work.

Today is Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day was created in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. It is commemorated today because April 22 represents how far into 2008 women must work just to be paid the same amount men received in 2007.

Women in the United States are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. That’s $23 less for every $100 worth of work women do — $23 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care and other expenses. Over a lifetime of work, the 23 cents on the dollar adds up. The average 25-year-old working woman will lose more than $523,000 to unequal pay during her working life.

For women of color, the numbers are even worse. African-American women are paid 63 cents and Latinas 52 cents for every dollar men receive.

Since the 1970s, AFSCME has been one of the strongest advocates for closing the wage gap. AFSCME members have been the recipients of more than $1 billion in pay equity adjustments won at the bargaining table, in state and local legislatures, and through political action.

From staging strikes to landmark lawsuits, AFSCME has been on the frontline of the fight for equal pay.

• In 1981, members of AFSCME Local 101 in San Jose, Calif., went on strike to win pay equity after a city-initiated study showed that women’s jobs were underpaid and the city refused to take steps to address the inequity. This successful nine-day strike was the first time workers had walked off the job to demand equal pay. As a result, members received a contract that included $1.5 million dedicated to wage increases for female-dominated jobs.
• In 1982, AFSCME won $33.4 million to raise the pay for female-dominated jobs at the state government level in Minnesota.
• In 1983, AFSCME’s landmark lawsuit against the state of Washington resulted in an out-of-court settlement providing over $100 million in pay equity adjustments to 35,000 employees. This settlement ended AFSCME Council 28’s decade-long struggle to get the state to end pay disparities shown by the state’s own job evaluation studies.
• In 1991, AFSCME won a settlement that provided $7.5 million in wage increases and back pay to predominantly female and minority police communication technicians in the City of New York.
• In 2001, AFSCME settled the first class-action lawsuit under the Congressional Accountability Act for more than $2.5 million. As a result, 300 women employed or formerly employed by the Architect of the Capitol received pay upgrades and lump sum payments.

Read more on the issue of equal pay at the AFL-CIO Now Blog and from Ellen Bravo, former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women and author of Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business and the Nation.

One of America’s most revered and respected labor leaders, Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and a former AFSCME International vice president, heads home to San Antonio and a well-deserved retirement on September 21.

The daughter of cotton sharecroppers, Chavez-Thompson worked tirelessly for civil, human and workers’ rights and became the first woman of color elected as a top officer at the national AFL-CIO.

She rose through AFSCME’s ranks, as business manager of AFSCME Local 2399 in San Antonio and then as founding executive director of Texas State Council 42. In 1988, she was elected an AFSCME International vice president, serving in that post for eight years. Chavez-Thompson also was a member of AFSCME’s Judicial Panel.

Her life changed in 1994 when President McEntee asked her to become part of John Sweeney’s New Voice slate. She agreed and the next year, Chavez-Thompson was elected the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president.

Despite her retirement, Chavez-Thompson is not ending her four-decade commitment to the Labor Movement. She now becomes the AFL-CIO’s first executive vice president emerita, and will also continue to chair the AFL-CIO Immigration Committee, and lead the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), and the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) regional organization for the Americas. In addition, Chavez-Thompson will be an advisor to state federations and labor councils.

Read more about Chavez-Thompson on the AFL-CIO Now blog and at AFSCME.org.

How would you like to be paid less than 80 cents for every dollar your co-workers get? Wouldn’t you say that’s a pretty unfair deal? Well, that’s exactly what many women across this country experience every day, even though equal pay has been the law since 1963.

In 2006, women earned 77 cents for every dollar a man was paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is why April 24, 2007 marks “Equal Pay Day,” the annual symbolic day on which women’s average wages catch up to men’s from the previous year. This sure is one holiday where there’s nothing to celebrate.

And yet, equal pay is not just a women’s issue. As a matter of fact, the wage gap costs working families $200 billion in lost income a year.

And because pay equity is a problem that affects working families, a big part of the solution lies precisely in unions. Did you know that union women earn 31 percent more in their median weekly earnings than those without a union?

Among unions, AFSCME has been one of the strongest advocates for closing the wage gap. Since the 1970s, its members have been the recipients of more than $1 billion in pay equity adjustments won at the bargaining table, state and local legislatures and through political action.

At 57 percent of AFSCME’s membership, women are critical for our union to continue leading the charge for pay equity. Let’s make sure their hard work is valued accordingly.

The Supreme Court’s recent verdict in favor of a forklift operator who was sexually harassed on the job … then punished by her boss is a significant victory for working women. Charlotte Fishman’s take on the ruling is noteworthy:

Discrimination is a complex phenomenon and we know that the glass ceiling for women is held in place as much by micro-iniquities as it is by disparate treatment with clear economic consequences. In the workplace, as in life, even little things can mean a lot.

Get the full story here http://www.alternet.org/workplace/38541/