Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, every day, despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, millions of American women are denied equal pay for performing comparable work. In the case of Lilly Ledbetter, the Supreme Court of the United States compounded the indignity of discrimination by ignoring years of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and lower court decisions, narrowly interpreting the law that should have protected her, thus denying her the justice she deserved.

Justice has not been achieved over the past 45 years, with women's wages rising from 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man in 1963 to just 77 cents per dollar earned by a man in 2008. Minority women face even greater disparity, a gap that widened even more last year. These women are from all walks of life. They calculate our taxes. They teach our children. In California's District 15, my home district, they are developing the technologies of the future. Our sisters, daughters, and granddaughters deserve better from our country. We should have told them that they can do anything, reach for and achieve any dream.

I urge my colleagues to support this.

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