Will Economic Parity Efforts Define the Third Wave? Fair Pay Bills Pass in the House

by Jen Nedeau

Published January 09, 2009 @ 08:11PM PT

During a conference call earlier this week, Lily Ledbetter said,“Sorry to say that I am a living example that pay discrimination continues to be a pervasive problem in the workplace today.”

And while she will never be able to be compensated for the lost wages she incurred during the twenty years at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant where she was discriminated against in her pay due to her gender, it is her compelling story and personal courage that has inspired the newly elected 111th Congress to demonstrate their support for economic parity among women and men by passing both the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, as well as the Paycheck Fairness Act, for the second time today.

The swift and decisive passage of these bills is certainly hopeful for third wave feminists hoping for a major legislative victory to help define what has been an ambiguous decade within the women's rights movement, however, there is still the question of whether or not the Senate will also endorse this legislation.

Both of these bills have been passed by the House before - Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed in the summer of 2007 by a vote of 225-199; the Paycheck Fairness Act also passed by 247-178 -but each failed with the Senate. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act failed to get cloture, while the Paycheck Fairness Act was never taken up by the Senate.

Today the Paycheck Fairness Act passed by a vote of 256-163, a four percent increase since the previous vote, and additionally, the House voted on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed 247-171, showing a nearly ten percent increase in support since the initial vote in 2007

Today, the House of Representatives sent a bold message to the Supreme Court which allowed hundreds of corporations to take advantage of the wage gap since the decision in the Lily Ledbetter case in 2007 saying that the time has come to stand up for equality, fairness and civil justice.

With the increased margins of support for pay equity legislation, as well as a greater number of Democrats in the Senate, I am hopeful that both of these bills will finally become law. It would seem inexcusable that women continue make just 77 cents to each man’s dollar, which in an uncertain economy, makes equal pay for equal work more important than ever.

If you want to see what you might be missing out on if these bills are not passed in the Senate, check out this wage gap calculator. You might be surprised at what it all adds up to.