On the recordNovember 17, 2010
I want to talk about the paycheck unfairness bill that is before us. A better title for this bill should be the ``jobs for trial lawyers act.'' I am confident that there is no Member of this Senate who would tolerate paying a woman less for the same work simply because she is a woman. As husbands, fathers, and mothers of working women, I believe we all recognize the gross inequity of discrimination in pay based on gender. Congress has put two laws on the books to combat such discrimination--Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. These are both good laws that have been well utilized to combat discrimination where it exists, and I support the full enforcement of these laws. Businesses that discriminate against a female employee because of her gender must be corrected and penalized. But what the majority is trying to push through here today is of a very different nature. The so-called Paycheck Fairness Act is actually a ``jobs for trial lawyers act.''
