Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank Senator Mikulski for her tremendous leadership on this issue--a lot of issues, quite frankly. But she has focused laser-like attention on this issue for so long, and I would hope, when we have this vote at 2:30, we can at least get to the bill and debate the bill and have amendments on the bill. But I am afraid our Republican colleagues are not going to let us do that. Again, I applaud the senior Senator from Maryland, Ms. Mikulski, for introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act and fighting so hard for so long for it. Again, to repeat what has been said before--but I think it needs to be repeated time and time again--in 1963, Congress responded to wage disparities between men and women by passing the Equal Pay Act of 1963. At that time, 25 million female workers earned just 60 percent of the average pay for men. Now, nearly half a century after the passage of that landmark law, we have made some progress toward eliminating this gross inequality, but it is not enough. There should be no gap. But today, a wage gap continues to exist within every segment of our economy, at all education levels and in all occupations. So for every $1 a man earns now, a woman earns just 77 cents. That is better than 60 cents, as it was in 1963. But one would think a half a century later we would at least be equivalent. But now it is still just 77 cents. Women's lower wages add up tremendously over a career.…”