Pay Discrimination

04/09/2013

What Would You Do With $11,000?

By Meghan Groob, Media Relations Associate, ACLU at 4:55pm

Imagine looking at your bank statement and seeing $11,000 more than you expected. If you're anything like me, you would immediately start planning how to spend your newfound riches. Should I be responsible and pay off my debt? Or should I finally take that dream vacation to Paris?

This situation isn't hypothetical. Fifty years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, women, on average, still make just 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. That adds up to nearly $11,000 in lost wages every year.

01/29/2013

Pay Discrimination

"Our Journey is Not Complete" – Equal Pay Requires Passage of Paycheck Fairness Act

By Cynthia Bell, ACLU & Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 10:31am

In the 50 years since President John Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963, wages for women still do not equal those of men...

06/06/2012

Equal Pay

An Unhappy Anniversary for the Equal Pay Act

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:35pm

Yesterday, on a procedural vote, the U.S. Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed for the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill intended to update the Equal Pay Act of 1963, to move forward. Unfortunately, the 52-47 vote means more delay for an already long overdue measure to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. In 1963, the year that Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, women earned 59 cents to their male counterparts’ dollar. Although we will celebrate the 49^th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act on June 10, the disparity continues: today, women, on average, earn only 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts take home, and for women of color, the disparity is even greater.

06/04/2012

Equal Pay

The Paycheck Fairness Act: It's Time to Stop the Catch 22

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Georgeanne M. Usova, Washington Legislative Office at 11:16am

Last week, Terri Kelly testified before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee about pay discrimination. In her nine year career as a pharmaceutical sales rep, Kelly was extremely successful—one of the best-performing reps in the nation. But despite all her hard work, she knew that she was being paid far less than another employee hired around the same time and in the same position: her husband. Because her employer had a policy in place prohibiting employees from either asking about or sharing information about their wages, Kelly was only able to find out that she was being discriminated against because she happened to be married to her coworker.

04/17/2012

Equal Pay

We Can't Wait For Fair Pay

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:02am

Today is Equal Pay Day, the day into 2012 that a woman must work, on average, to make she same amount a man did in 2011 alone.

04/16/2012

On the Agenda

On the Agenda: Week of April 16 – 20, 2012

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 11:29am

Congress is back in session, so we've got a busy week ahead.

Today, the ACLU, along with several other groups, is launching a weeklong campaign called "Stop Cyber Spying Week" to draw attention to the massive civil liberties problems in H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, better known as CISPA. CISPA is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week. Tomorrow ACLU Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson will speak at a House Hill Briefing called "The False Choice: Cybersecurity vs. Civil Liberties."

11/23/2011

Workers' Rights

The Rights We Take for Granted

By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 12:06pm

It may seem obvious that all workers are entitled to a work environment free from sex discrimination and to the wages guaranteed to them by law. But for laborers who come to this country to work temporarily under the H-2B visa program, the ability to enforce these basic rights is often out of reach.

This was the case for three of our clients who came to North Carolina from Mexico to work in the seafood processing industry. According to allegations they made in charges of discrimination and a class action lawsuit, they were limited by their employer to picking crab meat, while men were given a range of other work, and were given much more work than the women. In addition, our lawsuit claimed that their employer paid both men and women H-2B workers less than the wages promised to them, and failed to reimburse them for the travel and visa expenses they incurred, as the H-2B program requires.

08/26/2011

Workers' Rights

Bloomberg L.P Decision Takes Women's Equality Two Steps Back

By Galen Sherwin, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 1:33pm

Today, as we celebrate Women's Equality Day, commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, I find myself reflecting on a central lesson of the struggle for suffrage: the power to effect political change through collective action is critical to achieving equality. There have been some days recently when I feel like that lesson has been largely forgotten, particularly in the courts.

08/18/2011

Title IX

On HBO's "Gloria: In Her Own Words"

By Amy L. Katz, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 12:02pm

As I watched HBO's Gloria Steinem documentary, Gloria: In Her Own Words, I remembered the day that everything changed for me. Late June 1972. I was 17 and had just finished my first year of college. I was heading to Long Island with my mom to spend a day at the town pool near my aunt's home. We stopped at the newsstand at the Long Island Railroad station. I browsed through the magazines. The first newsstand issue of Ms. magazine caught my eye. The cover image of Wonder Woman accompanied by the headline "Wonder Woman for President" combined my newfound interest in politics with my life-long love of DC Comics characters. I bought it.

07/12/2011

Workers' Rights

Former First Lady and Women's Rights Advocate: Betty Ford

By Zoë Barth-Werb, Women's Rights Project at 2:38pm

On Friday, Betty Ford died at the age of 93. As first lady, she was best known for her outspoken nature and willingness to voice an often controversial opinion on any number of hot-button issues. A Midwesterner who never cared much for political life, it hardly occurred to her that she should only publicly state her opinion when it aligned with her husband's views or the GOP platform.

Betty Ford was a tireless advocate for women's rights. Civil liberties supporters often cite her work on the Equal Rights Amendment, which was designed to grant women full legal rights under the Constitution. While it ultimately failed, Ford's dedication was unquestionable. She continued to fight for it past her short term as first lady. When debate opened on removing the ERA from the GOP platform at the 1980 Republican National Convention, Ford walked out of the convention to join the National Organization for Women's protest.

American Civil Liberties Union