I work for a little nonprofit, MomsRising.org. Our tagline is "Working For A Truly Family-Friendly America." Taking back that term "family friendly" means, among other things, equal pay for equal work.
So we've been working nonstop for over a year to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. You all might remember some months ago when I posted about how Palin refused to accept our 20,000+ signatures on a petition asking what her (and McCain's) stances on family friendly issues were, including her stance on fair pay.
Today all of us grassroots folks who worked on this are celebrating!! And remembering his roots, Obama invited the community organizers to join him in the Oval Office for this historic signing.
We worked really hard on this. Last January, MomsRising.orgmembers set up meetings in 44 local US Senate offices to talk about their support for equal pay for equal work.
And as you might have seen in the other diary, over 9000 members sent in their resumes when McCain, after being absent for last year's fair pay vote, said that women just needed more education and training.
We partnered with the National Women's Law Center, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, NAACP, Alliance For Justice, American Progress Action Fund to engage the grassroots deeply on this.
The best part of all this is that the law is now at least restored to what it was before the terrible Supreme Court decision. (In a nutshell-- every time you receive an unequal paycheck, that's a new injury (although you can receive only up to two years' worth of the difference in pay). The Supreme Court had said to Lilly that because she didn't find out about the unequal pay within six months of getting the job, she couldn't recover anything. Wha-? Who finds out their colleagues' pay after six months on a job, or ever??) We still have much work to do on actually getting equal pay, but now you can at least do something about it if you happen to find out you're getting shafted.
And the next best part of all for me was seeing our ED, even in a blurry camera phone shot, with Obama in the Oval Office!! Forgive me for getting squealy, but EEEEEEEEEEEE!
And with our champion for equal pay herself, Lilly Ledbetter:
Here's our press release on this:
STATEMENT OF Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner CONTACT: Gretchen Wright
MomsRising.org Executive Director 202/371-1999
On President Obama's Signing of the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
January 29, 2009
It was with great pride and great joy that I attended today's Presidential signing ceremony of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. As someone once said famously, "it's been a long time coming," but now federal law ensures that employees are able to seek redress if they learn that they have been discriminated against in pay because of their gender, race or ethnicity.
Many years ago, Lilly Ledbetter bravely stood up to a major corporation and fought for the rights of workers all across this country to fight pay discrimination. And today, by making this the very first bill he signed into law, President Barack Obama showed us that he is acting on the promises he made in his campaign. This law is a signal to people all across this country that pay discrimination will not be tolerated and now employees have the right and the ability to fight it.
MomsRising.org's members worked hard to help pass this legislation. They signed petitions, sent letters and even met with U.S. Senators' offices to urge passage of the bill. Today, we are proud to see our efforts rewarded and we recommit to fighting for the range of family-friendly policies this country needs.
# # # #
MomsRising.org is an online grassroots organization that is working for paid family leave, flexible work options, excellent childcare and health care for all children, and to stop the wage and hiring biases that penalize so many mothers today. MomsRising.org has more than 150,000 members across the United States.
Thank you to everyone who ever sent an email on this or supported this bill in any way-- including by supporting Obama and Democrats. When our lawmakers truly believe in equality and fundamental fairness, we all benefit.