Pelosi, DeLauro Promote Paycheck Fairness

For decades, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of New haven has fought for a law she believes would address gender disparities in income. The latest version of the bill — known as the Paycheck Fairness Act — has been stalled for months in a Republican-dominated Senate.

Appearing together Saturday, at Gateway Community College, DeLauro and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said they haven’t given up hope, encouraged by recent legislative successes in Connecticut and a rising wave of public support.

DeLauro invited Pelosi to speak at Gateway as part of a series of ​“Speaker in the House” events aimed at connecting Pelosi with local communities across the country. Saturday’s event focused specifically on the Paycheck Fairness Act that DeLauro introduced.

The bill intends to address the fact that on average, for every dollar that white men earn, white women earn 83 cents; black women earn 63 cents; and Latina women earn 54 cents.

Invited speaker Brittney Yancy, a professor at Goodwin College, spoke to a financial and emotional toll of these statistics. She said she will be the first in her family to receive a doctorate next Spring; yet graduation day, she said, ​“is also a day of anxiety for me” as she faces six-figure debt for student loans.

Yancy, a black woman, argued that the pay disparity reflects a disparity in respect for the work of women, and particularly women of color. ​“It’s not really about the money. It’s about the value,” she told the audience. ​“At the end of the day, what I’m gonna think about is, ​‘Is my work valued?’”

The Paycheck Fairness Act, which DeLauro framed as a ​“remedy” to gaps in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, would prohibit employers from asking prospective hires about past salaries and banning workers from discussing their salaries amongst one another. It would also require employers to report salary information to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

DeLauro first introduced a bill to its effect in 1997. This past March, an iteration of the bill passed in the House of Representatives for the third time. Over the past several months, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not allowed it to proceed.

DeLauro and Pelosi acknowledged the hurdles that the bill faces in a majority-Republican Senate. ​“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that women select jobs” that offer lower pay, DeLauro said.

The two women referred to McConnell by his self-endowed nickname, ​“the grim reaper.” When a microphone emitted a screech of feedback, Pelosi joked, ​“Is that Mitch McConnell?”

At a press conference following the event, DeLauro expressed hope for the Paycheck Fairness Act. She noted that a handful of Republicans in the House of Representatives supported the bill, and observed a changing public sentiment with respect to the wage gap.

“We’re living in a different world now in terms of income inequality,” she said. ​“For women, who have a very strong voice these days in our country, who are two thirds of the primary and secondary breadwinners, who are most of the minimum-wage workers, this issue is now part of the public discourse … and that ought to be the impetus for the passage of the bill in this Senate.”

Pelosi and DeLauro stressed that local politicians, activists, and members of the public could serve as a crucial force towards bridging the wage gap in the face of a standstill on the federal level. They celebrated recent legislation in Connecticut to raise the statewide minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour, institute paid family and medical leave, and prevent employers from asking potential new hires about their previous salaries.

The role of unions in gathering public momentum to advocate for labor reform did not go unmentioned.

“No institution has done more for equal pay for equal work than the labor movement,” Pelosi declared in response to a question submitted from the audience. ​“The middle class in America has a union label on it.”

Audience member Debra Johnson, a retired steward at Teamsters Local 1150, a union of aircraft workers, echoed this sentiment before the event began. ​“I believe organized labor is a way of leveling the playing field for everyone,” she said, adding that she received fair pay as a union employee. ​“The union machine is what’s going to get it done.”

Rachel Spells and Stephanie Cotton are also union members. They said the wage gap continues to affect them. Spells is on her way to becoming a doula, while Cotton works in childcare. Both women said that their predominantly-female fields remain undervalued and underpaid.Spells said she felt energized hearing from a pair of ​“innovating” women in congress who are working to change that.

Cotton said she was most inspired when Pelosi spoke about a meeting she once had with high-powered White House officials, including then-President George Bush. ​“It was unlike any meeting that a woman had been to before,” Pelosi had recalled. ​“I was feeling very closed in on my chair … Then, I realized: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, they were all on the chair with me,” Pelosi said. The room burst into applause.