August 1, 2008: Kaptur supports the Paycheck Fairness Act

“Today we do what is morally right and economically just. Today we give America's working women a real dose of liberty,” said Kaptur, speaking on the floor in favor of the bill. Congresswoman Kaptur highlighted the historic difficulties faced by working women and recalled how her own mother had been unable to earn minimum wage until the passage of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. “In passing this act, I do so in memory of our mother and millions and millions of American women who ask only to be treated fairly in the workplace and earn equal pay for equal work and get that check.”

The passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act is part of a long history of equal pay legislation and is broadly supported by numerous women’s rights organizations. Despite a narrowing of the pay gap in recent years there has remained a significant disparity in the salaries of equally qualified men and women. Recently the National Women’s Law Center estimated that the median annual earnings of women ages 15 and older were $31,858, compared to $41,386 for their male counterparts. The gender pay gap has also been shown to impact heavily on minority groups for example figures for 2005 show that an African American woman earned just 64 cents for every dollar earned by a white man, while a Hispanic woman earned only 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart.

Click to watch her speech: