Nomination of Roy K.J. Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

Floor Speech

Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Murray on the floor to stand up for America's women because it is time for a tough conversation about the economics of being a woman. I applaud her leadership, and I am very pleased she is bringing the women of the Senate to the floor today.

Women are working hard, earning their own way, and supporting their families, but they are not getting the same pay, the same security or the same respect. Take a look at the minimum wage. Two out of every three minimum wage workers are women. Women make up about three-quarters of all tipped minimum wage workers. A woman who works minimum wage can work full time and yet she will not earn enough to keep herself and a baby out of poverty. Minimum wage workers have not received a wage increase in 7 years. This is bad for women and it does not reflect America's value. CEOs got raises, managers got raises, but the women who cook and clean and care for our children are still stuck at the same $7.25 an hour they earned 7 years ago.

We could change this. If Congress would pass a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, more than 15 million women and their families would have more economic security, but Republicans have blocked this bill. They say they care about women, but they will not help the women who earn minimum wage or consider equal pay for equal work. I cannot believe I am saying this in 2014, but women still earn, on average, only 77 cents to the dollar what their male colleagues earn. Bloomberg analyzed the census data to find that in 99.6 percent of jobs, women get paid less than men. That is not an accident. That is discrimination.

Today, if a woman wonders if she is being paid the same as the guys are getting, she can, in some jobs, get fired just for asking. This is bad for women and it does not reflect America's values. We could change this by passing Senator Barb Mikulski's Paycheck Fairness Act, a law that would make sure women do not get fired just for asking what the guy down the hall is getting paid, but Republicans have blocked this bill. They say they care about women but will not help the women who do the same work as a man but get paid less.

Consider health care. Before the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2009, some insurance companies charged women higher premiums simply because they were women. Some insurance policies refused to cover preventive services for women such as mammograms and cervical cancer screenings. Pregnancy costs could be excluded and birth control coverage could be left out. In other words, affordable women's health care took a backseat to the profits of insurance companies.

But now we have the Affordable Care Act; women pay the same insurance rates as men. We have the Affordable Care Act; women get free coverage for mammograms and birth control. We have the Affordable Care Act; women can worry a little less about whether health problems will land them in bankruptcy.

Where are the Republicans? They want to repeal ObamaCare. The House has now voted more than 50 times to repeal ObamaCare. The Senate Republicans have come to the floor day after day to demand that ObamaCare be done away with. The Republicans say they care about women, but they will not help women pay for health care or get the full medical coverage they need at a price they can afford.

Women are working hard earning their own way and supporting their families. They are entitled to the same pay, the same security, and the same respect as men. Policies such as these--minimum wage, equal pay, and the Affordable Care Act--provide a measure of equality, better security, and some basic respect. Republicans want to block or repeal all three. Women are not asking for special deals. They just want a fair shot at building lives for themselves and their families.

The women of the Senate, the Democratic women of the Senate, are ready to fight the Republicans to make sure women across this country have their fair shot.

I thank Senator Murray for her leadership in fighting for real economic equality for women.

I yield the floor.

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