Today America observes an unfortunate holiday, Equal Pay Day.

This is the day when the average wages of a female worker finally catch up to the average wages of a male worker during the previous year.  In other words, 45 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy, American women still have to work an extra 113 days to catch up with the earnings of American men.   It’s shocking that in 2008 women still earn only 77 cents to every dollar a man earns.

This is more than just a question of fairness.  When women earn less, their entire family suffers.  When we allow women to be paid unequal wages for equal work, we as a society are tolerating discrimination.  That is why we must take action to close the wage gap, and treat all workers equally.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Ledbetter v. Goodyear further exacerbated the difficulties that already face working women and their families due to pay inequity.  In a deeply flawed decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a worker must file a charge of pay discrimination within 180 days of an employer’s initial decision to pay someone less for discriminatory reasons.  This clearly went against the intent of the Civil Rights Act and I was proud that the House acted quickly to correct this misguided decision by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provides more effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work

 This week, the Senate will consider this important legislation.  I hope that Equal Pay Day will remind them of how far we’ve come and how far we need to go in remedying pay discrimination in our country. 

 I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act immediately and encourage President Bush to quickly sign it into law for the benefit of millions of hard working women and their families.

Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.