By Quill
So, as promised, here is my contribution to "Blog for Fair Pay for Women" on Equal Pay Day. As the statistics show, women (especially women of color) have a long way to go before they earn as much as men for the same amount of work:
In Lily M. Ledbetter's case, she did not discover that she was making less than her male co-workers - even those with less seniority - until someone slipped her an anonymous note about the matter, after nearly 20 YEARS of service at the Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She was the only woman out of 17 employees at the same management level at the plant.
In response to the court's dubious decision, Congress is voting on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act next week, as early as Wednesday. This bill would allow people to prosecute their employers for pay discrimination without a 180-day time limit by designating each discriminatory paycheck as an ongoing violation of the law.
I encourage you to sign the petitions (here and here) being collected by the National Women's Law Center and the ACLU to encourage your congress members to vote for this legislation.
If you want to find other ways to get involved, check out the websites of the two previously mentioned organizations as well as MomsRising.org, an organization dedicated to making American corporate culture more family-friendly.
Donating your name and two minutes of your time will help make America a more just place for everybody.
- Women are paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.
- African-American women are paid 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men.
- Latinas are paid 52 cents for every dollar paid to white men.
In Lily M. Ledbetter's case, she did not discover that she was making less than her male co-workers - even those with less seniority - until someone slipped her an anonymous note about the matter, after nearly 20 YEARS of service at the Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She was the only woman out of 17 employees at the same management level at the plant.
In response to the court's dubious decision, Congress is voting on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act next week, as early as Wednesday. This bill would allow people to prosecute their employers for pay discrimination without a 180-day time limit by designating each discriminatory paycheck as an ongoing violation of the law.
I encourage you to sign the petitions (here and here) being collected by the National Women's Law Center and the ACLU to encourage your congress members to vote for this legislation.
If you want to find other ways to get involved, check out the websites of the two previously mentioned organizations as well as MomsRising.org, an organization dedicated to making American corporate culture more family-friendly.
Donating your name and two minutes of your time will help make America a more just place for everybody.
4 comments:
Hmm...
You raise some interesting points here, but you fail to comprehend some basic knowledge about these issues. (Don't feel bad though, most feminists don't understand women's rights).
First of all, the whole 77% statistic is completely misleading. Women get paid 77 cents for every dollar men make because women only do 77% as much work. That is not sexist to say, it is the truth. Lets look at some examples.
In the NBA, the leading scorer is Lebron James, you may have heard of him. He scores exactly 30.0 points a game, on average. Cappie Pondexter, leading scorer in the WNBA, at the moment, only scores 23.9 points a game, which, according to my calculations, is about 79.6% of what Lebron James scores. (Women at home, don't try doing "calculations". First your uterus will stop working and then your brain will explode). So, because she only scores 79.6% of what Lebron James scores, she is only working 79.6% as hard, and thus should only be paid 79.6% as much. Now, she probably isn't getting paid 79.6% as much, but we haven't even started calculating rebounding.
You can apply this same basic principle to any job. Of course, I don't expect women to understand that complicated mathematical logarithm (or whatever).
As far as the Latina women and the black women, I am not a racist. Those women should sue and be paid millions of dollars. Then maybe employers will start being fair and paying them 77% of what men make.
Echidne of the Snakes has a great three-part series on the gender wage gap http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/
I'll post that link as an update to my follow-up on the failure of the Senate to vote for cloture on the Lily Ledbetter Act. Thanks, m!
hi anonymous. just wanted to give you props on your oh-so-insightful comment. of course, the majority of american men and women are stars of the wbna and nba, so your comparison is a completely fair demonstration of how dimwitted and lazy women are. good for you!
also, how the hell was that at all a logarithm, as you claim it was? clearly, YOU are the one who doesn't know shit about math.
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