"We believe Texas woman want and deserve equal pay," said RedState Women executive director Cari Christman on Sunday. But the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, she said, is not the answer.
What is the equal pay solution?
"If you look at it, women are extremely busy," she said. "We lead busy lives, whether working professionally, whether working from home, and times are extremely busy. It's a busy cycle for women, and we've got a lot to juggle. So when we look at this issue we think, what's practical? And we want more access to jobs. We want to be able to get a higher education degree at the same time we're working or raising a family."
Christman isn't entirely wrong about the Ledbetter Act—it doesn't go far enough. But there's one very simple legislative answer for promoting equal pay, and it's called the
Paycheck Fairness Act. It wouldn't be a magic bullet, but it would be a start. Republicans, of course, oppose it, which is why Christman couldn't include it in her answer, forcing her to babble nonsensically.
It would be great if higher education was more affordable and accessible, but with women earning more than half of college degrees these days, yet earning less right out of the gate, education is not the answer. And "more access to jobs?" Again, sure, women should have access to jobs. No argument there. But if in those jobs they are consistently paid less than men, that's not an equal pay answer either.
This is Republican outreach to women. A lot of words used to evade the fact that Republicans consistently oppose measures to reduce the pay gap. And seriously, the executive director of one of the GOP's new "let's reach out to women" initiatives was obviously taken by surprise by a question about equal pay and didn't have her talking points at the ready. Doesn't that tell you all you need to know about how prepared Republicans are to actually address this issue?