Ellen Goodman provides yet another excellent reason to vote against McCain this fall

[spooky3]

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/1059149.html

A coupla lessons on that stubborn wage gap

BOSTON - By now the Tale of Lilly Ledbetter is beginning to sound like the Perils of Pauline or the Pre-Feminist Follies. At 70 years old, she's the star of a long-running drama about how hard we have to run to keep from slipping backward.

snip

Well, the House of Representatives did just that and pretty promptly. It passed a bill to restore the rules to allow an employee to sue up to 180 days after the latest unequal paycheck. But when the bill bearing Lilly Ledbetter's name got to the Senate, the Republicans balked. There weren't enough Republican defectors to overcome a filibuster and get the bill on the Senate floor.

Not only did President Bush threaten to veto the restoration act, his would-be successor didn't even take time off the campaign trail to vote. John McCain let it be known that he opposed the Ledbetter legislation because it "opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems." This is a little like saying we shouldn't have any laws because they only clog up the courts.

snip

As for the conductor of the Straight Talk Express? McCain said that he was all in favor of equal pay for equal work but that women don't need lawsuits, they need "education and training." So let's begin with a couple of basics.

Lesson One: An unequal paycheck is a thief that keeps on taking. Even in retirement, Ledbetter is still, in her own words, "a second-class worker" with a pension and Social Security check that carry Goodyear's bite marks.

Lesson Two: In 2008, the Republicans are partying -- political partying -- like it's 1964.

[niyad]

1. k & r

[spooky3]

2. thanks - what McCain meant was "let 'em go inherit money, like Cindy."

[SharonAnn]

4. Women already have education, training AND experience. They're just paid less.

It's not that they are less educted. It's not that they are less trained. It's not that they are less experienced. It's that it's still legal to pay them less because of court verdicts like the recent Supreme Court case re: Lily Ledbetter.

So, companies are allowed to keep salaries, bonuses and other compensation related information confidential. And a woman must sue within 180 days of the first unequal paycheck.

Exactly how is she supposed to know when that is? Oh, that's the trick. She won't know, therefore she can't sue, and employers can continue to pay women less.

[Fridays Child]

3. Who's maintaining the McShame file? This one needs to go in it.