Paycheck Fairness Act House Floor Speech

I rise in support of hr seven the paycheck fairness act. It is a historic day on the House of representatives floor and we are gonna pass paycheck fairness, equal pay for equal work in this United States of America. I want to say a thank you to the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee for getting this bill through the Committee and onto the floor today. We have waited eight years eight years to be able to vote on this issue. The United States Congress has a rich history of making a difference in the lives of the American people, Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act. The GI bill, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act. To name but a few and today we can make a difference for working women and their families. Today we can address the biggest economic challenge of our time. That Americans are in jobs that do not pay them enough to live on. We can address their economic struggle and yes, this is a bill that the majority is passing today to address that economic need for families. I cannot tell you how difficult it has been to breakthrough on something so simple. Men and women in the same job deserve the same pay. But now issue and the environment have collided, equal pay is at the center of our public discourse and paycheck fairness is ready for passage today. A bipartisan bill and supported by every member of the Democratic caucus, the Paycheck Fairness Act, toughens remedies and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to give america's working women the opportunity to fight wage discrimination to receive the paycheck that they have earned. Under existing law damages are too insubstantial to provide women with the full restitution or provide bad acting companies a meaningful deterrent. Paycheck Fairness puts gender based discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination by allowing women to sue for compensatory and punitive damages, it better protects employees from being fired for sharing their salary with coworkers. It establishes a grant program to provide salary negotiation training for girls and for women and it ensures that employers are not reliant on wage history when they hire an employee. Over 60 years ago, after Republican President Dwight Eisenhower called for equal pay legislation. He did that during his 1956 State of the Union address on the floor of this House he called for equal pay legislation and more than 55 years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, pay discrimination is very much still a reality in our country. In 2017, there are almost 26,000 charges of unlawful sex based pay discrimination filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and 996 Equal Pay Act charges. Women continue *Just an additional minute* Thank you. Women continue, Women continue to earn 20 percent less than men on average, according to the census data and women earn less regardless of the choices they make in their career or education and across industries. Whether you're, a financial manager registered nurse, a school teacher, an executive, a pay gap exists between men and women. 10 years ago we passed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay, Act. It reopened the courtroom door, but did not address the underlying issue at hand today. We have an opportunity To pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, it is a matter of right and wrong, discrimination is unacceptable and we are all diminished when we fall short. President Kennedy said, when he signed the equal pay act, This would add to our laws another structure basic to democracy, affirm our determination that when women enter the labor force they will find equality in their pay envelope. We can do this today on the floor of this House. I urge my colleagues to please pass on both sides of the aisle to vote for the Paycheck Fairness Act and make sure that we guarantee equal pay for equal work in our society.