Dick Durbin: “Yesterday we had a vote on a labor issue. This was a vote as to whether men and women in the workplace working the same…”

“Yesterday we had a vote on a labor issue. This was a vote as to whether men and women in the workplace working the same jobs get the same pay. Most people would say: Well, isn't that the law already? Yes. Unfortunately, the law as written in 1963 with the Equal Pay Act isn't working very well. In a lot of workplaces women are paid less. In the State of Illinois, it is about 75 cents for every dollar paid to a man for most women unless you happen to be an African man and then it is 65 cents, or Hispanic, it is 65 cents. The actual working relationships in many businesses discriminate against women. We offered a bill yesterday to the Equal Pay Act brought to the floor by Senator Mikulski of Maryland and Senator Boxer of California. We asked if we could now revisit the Equal Pay Act to make sure it is enforceable and that it works so that literally if my son or my daughter ended up with the same job and the same workplace and the same work record, they would get the same pay. Not a radical idea by any measure. That was what we brought up for a vote yesterday. I took a look at the Congressional Record to refresh my memory and talked with the staff. Not one Republican Senator would vote for that bill--not one. There were 52 votes in favor of moving forward on this bill. All of them were from the Democratic side.…”