Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM
From the pool report:
With the last pen, he said: "This one, this one's for Lilly."
He handed her the pen and then gave a thumb's up sign to the lawmakers. Everyone in the room stood and applauded. POTUS posed for some photos and then worked the crowd.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed today, the first piece of major legislation President Obama has signed. A bill saying that it's not OK to discriminate even if you hide it really well should not have been a major advance. But it is. It is because that's the Supreme Court we have, and until earlier this month, that was the Congress and the president we had.
This is a major advance because 2007 saw the highest earnings ratio (PDF) between men and women ever -- just a 22.2% gap. It's major because:
- 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.
- 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.
It's major because, over a lifetime:
Women may lose $434,000 in income, on average, due to the career wage gap.
It's major because it's for everyone. Because education doesn't get you equality -- according to that same study of lifetime losses, "women with the most education lose the most in earnings." Because unions do close the gap somewhat, but the same corporations that have fought for their right to continue discriminating against women will do anything to keep their workers out of unions. But the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act says it's just not OK to discriminate.
In the New York Times, Gail Collins places Lilly Ledbetter in context:
She’s now part of a long line of working women who went to court and changed a little bit of the world in fights that often brought them minimal personal benefit.
It's at once inspiring and depressing to read Collins' accounts of three other such women, to see how on the one hand we keep moving forward because women keep fighting, but how on the other employers and our culture and our courts keep throwing up obstacles.
The pool report from Michelle Obama's post-signing reception makes clear that Lilly Ledbetter understands this context and her own place in history:
"I have spent the past two years since the Supreme Court decision in my case, fighting for equal pay for this," Ms. Ledbetter said. "But to watch him sign a bill that bears my name, a bill that will help women and others fight pay discrimination in the workplace is truly overwhelming. Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of. I will never see a cent from my case. But with the passage and the president's signature today, I have an even richer reward." Crowd claps.
"I know my daughters and granddaughters and your daughters and your granddaughters will have a better deal," Ms. Ledbetter said. "That's what makes this fight worth fighting, that's what makes this fight one we had to win. Now with this win we will make a big difference in the real world. On behalf of all the women in this country who will once again be able to fight pay discrimination, thank you."
Here's to everyone who keeps fighting. Here's to the people who see injustice done and try to undo it, not just for themselves but so it won't happen to anyone else. Here's to the legislators who got this one passed and are gearing up for the next bill to help working people, and to the president who signed it, and to the people of this country who looked at the past eight years and said "we can do better" and made this day possible.
(For more information on wage discrimination, take a look at Elise's recommended Feminisms diary from Wednesday night.)