“Out of touch with reality”: Lilly Ledbetter unloads on GOP’s fair pay tantrum

[DonViejo]

In Salon interview, Rick Perry, Scott Walker and co. excoriated for their ignorance of women

JOSH EIDELSON

One day after President Obama signed two executive orders tackling federal contractors’ gender pay gap, Senate Republicans Wednesday blocked debate for the third time on a broader Paycheck Fairness Act. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned the bill “would double down on job loss, all while lining the pockets of trial lawyers.” That comment followed Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s describing the debate as “nonsense,” and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s characterizing criticism of repealing an equal pay enforcement act as “a bogus issue.”

“Evidently,” advocate Lilly Ledbetter charged to Salon, Perry and Walker “don’t have a woman in their family that’s holding a full-time job that needs the money.” The Senate bill would offer new remedies against companies that punish workers for discussing their pay, direct the Labor Department to collect additional wage info, and require explanations for gender differentials. Obama’s executive orders require contractors to disclose pay info and further forbid them from punishing employees for disclosing their pay to co-workers. Ledbetter, the former Goodyear employee whose Supreme Court defeat spurred the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, introduced Obama at this week’s signing ceremony.

-snip-

Both the executive order signed by the president and the bill blocked in the Senate in part address workers’ ability to talk openly to each other about their pay. What does your experience suggest about the significance or the impact of that?

The company that I worked for, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., had big, lucrative government contracts from the time I walked into that job until the time I left … You know about the joke [that] goes around about assuming things, but the problem was that I thought [since] they were getting, and had, all these huge government contracts, that they would treat their employees according to the federal regulations and guidelines …

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/14/out_of_touch_with_reality_lilly_ledbetter_unloads_to_salon_on_gops_fair_pay_tantrum/

[CTyankee]

1. They are not "out of touch with reality." They know damn well what the reality is and they will

fight to the bitter end to keep the status quo. I say let's take the gloves off and hit them hard in the mid-terms on pay equity issues. They know how strongly it resonates with the average voter and they fear it.

Great post, Don...