Equal Pay

In what some may see as a modern version of “David and Goliath,” the women of Wal-Mart have fought for over a decade to challenge the discriminatory pay and promotion practices of the mega-retailer, which is located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and is the largest private employer in the U.S. Last year, adding insult to alleged injury, the Supreme Court denied class certification in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011) – finding that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy the “commonality” requirement for class actions when they failed to provide proof that “[Wal-Mart] operate[d] under a general policy of discrimination.” The decision dealt a strong blow to those who would seek to become modern-day “Davids” – leading NWLC’s Co-President, Marcia Greenberger, to issue the following statement:

"Today’s ruling undermines the very purposes of the class action mechanism and is tantamount to closing the courthouse door on millions of women who cannot vindicate their rights one person at a time. The women of Wal-Mart — and women everywhere — will now face a far steeper road to challenge and correct pay and other forms of discrimination in the workplace."

The plaintiffs subsequently limited the size of their class by region – new class actions were filed in California and Texas, and complaints were filed with the EEOC in 48 states – and cut out women who held certain positions in response to the Supreme Court decision. Read more »

Lilly Ledbetter, the tireless advocate for equal pay, knows firsthand how wage discrimination affects women and their families. Speaking at the Democratic National Convention last week, she reminded the country of her wage discrimination story. Lilly Ledbetter worked for Goodyear for nearly 20 years before discovering that she’d been paid unfairly, losing out on thousands of dollars over the course of her career there. After securing a jury verdict in her favor, in 2007 the Supreme Court determined that she would never receive the lost wages for all those years of discrimination because she didn’t complain about being paid unfairly in her first six months on the job. Less than two years later her namesake bill was passed, restoring the law to ensure that future workers could challenge their unfair pay. Under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the time period for challenging pay discrimination begins with the most recent paycheck that reflects unequal wages.

The data released today show that the typical woman is still paid 77 percent of a man’s wages. And when race and sex are considered together, the gap in earnings for women of color are especially stark: African American women make only 64 percent and Hispanic women make 55 percent when compared to white men.  This disappointing news is the sort that should spark policymakers to move forward quickly with additional improvements to the fair pay laws. Yet, opponents of fair pay laws are continuing to attack even the Ledbetter Act. In a recent National Review online piece Carrie Lukas shockingly suggests that women are now worse off because of the Ledbetter Act. Never mind that the Ledbetter Act was passed with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. And never mind that the cases that have been restored since that Act was passed show that the Ledbetter Act had a critical impact. So, as we are faced with the news of a decade of no progress on the wage gap, what’s quite clear is that we cannot waste time revisiting the merits of the bipartisan Ledbetter Act.  Below are just a few of the reasons that it is time to move forward on the next step in achieving fair pay – the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The Ledbetter Act restored longstanding law

The rule outlined in the Ledbetter Act, that as long as employees receive discriminatory paychecks they can continue to challenge wage discrimination, restores prior law to that applied by the EEOC and nine of the twelve federal courts of appeals before the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear. In other words, it put the law back to what everyone thought it was in 2007. With today’s news that the 23 cent wage gap has remained the same over the last decade, there is no doubt that more is required to overcome 10 years of stagnation. And we have yet to move forward with the policies that will actually update the outdated fair pay laws. Read more »

We all want girls to grow up believing they can be whatever they want to be. Girls’ empowerment slogans have found their way into pop songs, onto t-shirts and into girls’ hearts. Girls rock! Girls rule! Girl power!

But there’s some data out today that makes all that seem like magical thinking: the new wage gap numbers.

Equality minus 23%. Don’t try putting that on a t-shirt.

The wage gap for women has barely budged in over a decade, according to new data released today. The typical woman working full time, year round is paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to the typical man. This is unchanged from 2002, ten years ago. For women of color, it’s much worse, with the typical African-American woman paid 64 cents and the typical Latina woman paid 55 cents for every dollar paid to a white, non-Hispanic man.

Zoe Saldana, the star of basically every movie I love (including Center Stage … so sue me. I’m a sucker for a story of dedication to the arts, cutting edge ballet-rock-operas and really handsome male ballerinas) recently sat down and spoke with Amanda de Cadenet about women in Hollywood and entertainment. She made some really great points that apply to women in the workplace across a number of fields.

Saldana makes an excellent point: men and women aren’t equal in the movie/film industry – or in most workplaces nationwide. Read more »

In honor of Labor Day, here’s a snapshot of how working women are faring in today’s economy, by the numbers.

• Percentage of college graduates earning bachelor’s degrees who are women: 57.
• Percentage of students earning master’s degrees who are women: 60.
• Years of college that a man must attend, on average, to earn approximately the same as a woman with a four-year degree: 2.
• The typical number of cents paid to a full-time, year-round woman worker for every dollar paid to her male counterpart: 77.
• The typical number of cents paid to an African-American full-time, year-round woman worker for every dollar paid to a white, non-Hispanic man: 62.
• The typical number of cents paid to a Latina full-time, year-round woman worker for every dollar paid to a white, non-Hispanic man: 54.

A long holiday weekend is nearly upon us, and I’ll admit, my mind is wandering a bit today to non-work-related thoughts of beaches and barbecues. But before we all head off to celebrate a Labor Day free of labor, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the origins of this end-of-summer tradition.

According to the Department of Labor, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City, and was organized by the Central Labor Union, which later urged labor organizations in other cities to celebrate an annual “workingmen’s holiday” on the first Monday in September.

Of course, today we recognize that it is not only “workingmen,” but also millions of working women who have made great contributions “to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”  After decades of historic strides, women now make up about half of the U.S. workforce, and have entered into fields from manufacturing to medicine in numbers that many would not have imagined a generation ago. Read more »

The New York Times today reports that single women’s votes may be key to this year’s presidential election. “Single women are one of the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups — there are 1.8 million more now than just two years ago,” the Times explains. “They make up a quarter of the voting-age population nationally, and even more in several swing states, including Nevada.” But single women have traditionally registered and turned out to vote at relatively low rates, which means their full political power remains untapped.

It’s time to change that. The results of the presidential, congressional, and state elections this year will shape single women’s lives in a host of ways. The elections will determine whether single mothers receive the supports they need to make ends meet. They will determine whether women’s insurance covers contraception without a co-pay. The elections will determine whether the economy will work for single women who have experienced extremely high rates of unemployment through the recession and recovery and whether policymakers will prioritize fair pay for women. Read more »

One year ago, in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the Supreme Court, in a deeply divided 5-4 decision, put severe limits on workers' ability to come together to fight workplace discrimination. Yesterday, Betty Dukes, the named plaintiff in that lawsuit, came to Washington to ask Congress to remove the obstacles the Supreme Court placed in the way of ordinary Americans seeking their day in court.

Betty Dukes at the press conference introducing the EEORA

The Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act, introduced by Senator Al Franken and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, with 22 co-sponsors in the Senate and 38 in the House, would do just that, by creating a new avenue for workers to bring group actions to challenge company-wide discrimination. Read more »

Yesterday afternoon Representatives and Senators came together with Betty Dukes and anti-discrimination advocates to call on Congress to pass the Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act (EEORA).

Senate sponsors Franken and Blumenthal joined House sponsor Representative DeLauro to introduce the bill, seeking to remedy the damage done by the Dukes v. Wal-Mart decision, handed down by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision a year ago yesterday.

Senator Franken spoke about how the decision is a barrier to employees trying to come together as a group to enforce antidiscrimination laws against employers. These cases, Senator Franken said, are important because employees who band together are much more powerful than individuals. Senator Franken explained that EEORA creates "group actions," which restore the ability for workers to band together to challenge widescale discrimination.

This legislation is necessary, Senator Blumenthal (pictured above, Senator Franken in background) added, because the Dukes v. Wal-Mart decision created barriers that "set back the cause of justice in this country." Read more »

Tell Your Members of Congress to Stand with the Women of Wal-Mart           Betty Dukes with Senator Franken, lead Senate sponsor of the bill           Co-sponsor the Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012.

One year ago today, we told you devastating news: the Supreme Court had ruled against Betty Dukes and the courageous women of Wal-Mart.

In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that the Wal-Mart women could not band together as a single class to challenge discrimination in pay and promotions.

But that's not the end of the story.

For the last year, the National Women's Law Center and advocates across the country have pushed Congress for a solution. Today, Congress offered one!

Tell your Members of Congress to stand by the women of Wal-Mart by co-sponsoring the Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012.

Getting co-sponsors on this bill will help it to gain momentum — and we need you to help us move forward!

So what would this bill do?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Restoration Act of 2012 would remove the obstacles the Supreme Court placed in the way of ordinary Americans seeking their day in court. Read more »