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My Vote On The Equal Pay Bill

Apr 9, 2014 | Blog

People’s qualifications, performance and honesty are the most important qualities by which they should be judged in the workplace. If you’re a woman and your work merits it, you should be paid as an equal to your male counterparts. By the same token, if someone does a better job and has more responsibilities, that person should naturally get paid more, female or male.

Offering this legislation as some kind of meaningful solution entirely misses the point about the challenges we face in the 21st century economy. The fundamental challenge we face as a society today is helping young people obtain high quality education and skills throughout their lives.

What Senate Democrats are proposing today will make it easier for trial lawyers to file more lawsuits and collect more legal fees in the name of pay equity, but it won’t actually help create more well-paying jobs and it won’t do anything to help anyone develop the skills they need to do these jobs and get paid more. The American people understand that hard work and sacrifice are the ways to achieve the American Dream, and that our higher education system has to be more flexible and better account for the kinds of challenges people face, whether that means paying for their education or making the time to provide for their family. The American people deserve real solutions to help them earn better paychecks.