Senate Judiciary: still no equal paychecks for women

Both witnesses and members of the Senate Judiciary agree that women not being paid equally as men is a family issue which will affect entire families. Chairman Patrick J. Leahy(D-Vt.) said in a statement that for example women with Hispanic origins and particularly Black women are being received less payment than men, but are still doing the exact same work.

Witness Lilly Ledbetter, retired manager at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Alabama said she found an anonymous note in her mailbox saying that her male coworkers were paid between 15 to 40 percent more than she was. “I definitely faced obstacles and harassment that my male peers did not have to endure,” Ledbetter said.
Ledbetter thought equal rights issues such as equal pay was a Southern problem, but after she went forward with her case, she came in contact with women experience the same difficulties as she had living all across America.

Senator Dianne Feinstein(D-Calif.), highlighted the fact that equal rights issues is not only the lack of equal paychecks. Women are also losing their jobs faster than men or receiving fewer retirement benefits than men. “Women had to literally fight for everything thing they have received,” Sen. Feinstein said. According to Feinstein the rules of a work place must change in order for equal rights to manifest saying “this is going to be decided by the CEO’s of the companies.”