John Kline Must Hate Women

Congressman John Kline and the GOP have become obstructionists to fairness by supporting corporate discrimination over American women. Instead of allow women equal pay for equal work, Kline voted NO on both the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

Today, on average, a working full-time woman earns 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man. This is wage discrimination. Over the course of a woman's lifetime despite limiting current spending, it will adversely affect benefits by lowering Social Security and pension plans payouts.

The continue disparity in wages over the last 40 years between men and women signifies the need for stronger equal pay laws. Many recent reports show working women continue to earn less than men even though statistics indicate they are better educated. As a result of this, working families lose about $200 billion in income every year because of this pay discrimination.

It is clear that equal pay helps everybody. What’s not clear is how John Kline can continue to justify his obstructionist vote to the women in Minnesota’s second congressional district.

Facts About Pay Equity

• In 2005, women's median annual earnings were only $.77 for every $1.00 earned by men. For women of color, the gap is even worse – only $.71 for African American women and $.58 for Latinas.
• The General Accounting Office compiled data from the Current Population Survey regarding the ten industries that employ 71 percent of U.S. women workers and 73 percent of U.S. women managers. In seven of the ten industries examined, the pay gap between full-time male and female managers widened between 1995 and 2000.
• If women received the same wages as men who work the same number of hours, have the same education and union status, are the same age, and live in the same region of the country, then these women's annual income would rise by $4,000 and poverty rates would be cut in half. Working families would gain an astounding $200 billion in family income annually.
• Pay equity in female-dominated jobs (jobs in which women comprise 70 percent or more of the workforce) would increase wages for women by approximately 18 percent.
  Fifty-five percent of all women work in female-dominated jobs (jobs in which women comprise 70 percent or more of the workforce) whereas only 8.5 percent of all men work in these occupations. However, the men working in female-dominated jobs still receive about 20 percent more than women who work in female-dominated jobs.
• Women are paid less in every occupational classification for which sufficient information is available, according to the data analysis in over 300 job classifications provided by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics.
• In 1963, the year of the Equal Pay Act's passage, full-time working women were paid 59 cents on average to the dollar received by men, while in 2005 women were paid 77 cents for every dollar received by men. In other words, for the last 42 years, the wage gap has only narrowed by less than half of a penny per year.