House Launches New Labor Agenda With Wage Discrimination Bills

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CQ Staff

Jan. 9, 2009 – 1:31 p.m.
House Launches New Labor Agenda With Wage Discrimination Bills
By Karoun Demirjian, CQ Staff

In a bid to advance an ambitious labor agenda in the 111th Congress, the House passed legislation Friday designed to strengthen the ability of workers to combat wage discrimination.

The measure (HR 11), dubbed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, is designed to reverse a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it impossible for workers to sue for wage discrimination they discovered only years after it initially occurred. It was passed by 247-171 and sent to the Senate, which could take it up this month.

The House also voted 256-163 for a second bill (HR 12), which would require employers seeking to justify unequal pay for male and female workers to prove that such disparities are job-related and required by a business necessity. It would bar retaliation by employers against employees who share salary information with their co-workers, and allow workers to collect both compensatory and punitive damages.

Under the rule governing the debate, that measure was combined with the Lilly Ledbetter bill and sent to the Senate as a package.

Democrats applauded the House action as an important step toward guaranteeing the right of workers to fair employment during an economic recession.



Read more: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003006330

[ogneopasno]

1. Here are the Dems who voted against them:

Paycheck Fairness Act:
Bobby Bright (AL)
Walt Minnick (ID)
Parker Griffith (AL)

Lily Ledbetter Act:
Dan Boren (OK)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Bobby Bright (AL)
Travis Childers (MS)
Parker Griffith (AL)

[LisaM]

2. Ah yes, as Rachel calls them, the Plantation contingent

Alabama, the state of Richard Shelby, who hates the UAW and spoke out against the Big Three all the while 18 new foreign plants with non-union workers were slated to open across the south.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thanks for posting those Democratic (?) names, ogneopasno. What are they doing in the party

which has worked to protect the interests of WORKERS all these years?