I can't wait until the punditry (and, therefore, the American people)

[1StrongBlackMan]

catches up to what just happened ...with the signing of the Equal Pay Executive Order requiring Federal contractors to report on wages by race and gender.

Hint: What happens everyone in a workplace knows what everyone else makes?

Answer: Employers can no longer low ball anyone in terms of wages.

This is about women and "minorities"; but it really isn't about women and "minorities."

Labor studies show that where wages are publicized (e.g., government sector) in wages are higher than sectors where wages are confidential.

Further, this signing reinforces/strengthens the NLBR's recent rulings that discussing wages is protected conduct under "working condition"/union organization protections.

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[deafskeptic]

2. wages of all paid employees ought to be made public by law n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Agreed; but ...

there is no current mechanism for enforcing this on the private sector.

[deafskeptic]

9. There ought to be one. n/t

[Nye Bevan]

16. How much do you make? (nt)

[deafskeptic]

17. I'll tell you if you tell me how much u make. n/t

[Boom Sound 416]

18. Exactly

[gratuitous]

20. About $56,000 a year

And you?

[okaawhatever]

3. K & R nt

[sheshe2]

5. K&R! nt

[mountain grammy]

6. Thanks, Mr. President, for taking action and supporting women and labor.

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. Now ...

we just have to convince w-2 wage earners (at whatever salary level) that they are labor; rather than, temporary embarrassed owners!

[mountain grammy]

14. and that's the truth.. folks I know barely squeaking by voting Republican

I tell them, if your rich, sure vote Republican. The party of the rich, by the rich and for the rich will represent you. If you're not rich and Social Security is your retirement plan, the Republicans will hand it to the rich to take care of it for you. Save your money now so you can visit your Social Security in whatever tax haven it lands in.
And if that's not enough for you, I say, there's the entire future of the planet to think about.

I'll keep saying it over and over until they either understand or quit talking to me. I've seen both.

[Iliyah]

8. K & R

Only for the Federal level. Pres O wants congress to do the same for private businesses. Probably the senate which will take months because of the opposition, the house - forget it per gopers.

Voting is so important.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. Actually, only Federal Contractors ...

but requiring it of Federal Contractors introduces/establishes, for current and hopefuls, the reporting/wage openness into all of the private sector, in the only manner the President can without congressional approval.

[Initech]

11. Nah, the right wing will whine over Obama using another executive order.

Despite that he's used fewer than any president in the last 40 years.

[SunSeeker]

12. Yup. This keeping wages secret crap is how Lily Ledbetter got screwed.

Even though she was getting paid less than men doing the same job where she worked, salaries were kept secret, so it went on for years before she figured it out.

And then when she sued, her employer claimed it didn't owe her back wages because she had blown the statute of limitations for suing for those long ago years--even though she had just recently discovered the fact that she was entitled to sue. Our craven conservative SCOTUS majority upheld the employer's ridiculous position.

To address that patently unfair reading of the law, Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Act as soon as he took office. It basically overturned SCOTUS, and said the clock for filing suit starts running when you discover you've been screwed, not when the company starts screwing you.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. Yep ...

and this is a step to, both, effectuate Lily and give teeth to the NLRB's "working condition discussions" protections.

[mountain grammy]

15. In my experience working in union shops..

our wages, along with wage progression, was posted. It was great, except for the anti union whiners who would spend hours of the workday whining to the supervisors about pro union people working less and being paid the same as them; the very philosophy of the Republican party. They sit on their butts and whine while the rest of us work.

[Boom Sound 416]

19. It's a deep cultural stronghold

To have One's income confidential.

Even among the closest of friends.

Something about an income database seems quite corruptible

[1StrongBlackMan]

21. And that employer-encouraged cultural stronghold ...

has, and in fact is required, for employers to discriminate against women and "minorities" ... while, also, low-balling employees. This secrecy depresses all (but a few) workerforce wages.

[Boom Sound 416]

22. Too much generalization for me, but I hear ya

[bettyellen]

23. eggsactly! thank you Mr Strong!