With female voters in a position to turn the November elections, Democrats this week will launch a new effort to convince women that the Republican Party is against them.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act when the Senate returns from its week-long recess. While proponents insist the measure is needed to help equalize the pay of men and women performing the same work, Democrats also know Republicans oppose it and want to force the GOP to put that opposition on the record.
Democrats say their research shows women are paid just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men and that a law is needed to equalize those rates. But party lawmakers are not hiding the political motives behind the timing and scope of the bill, which follows a series of other female-focused measures rejected by the Republicans that the Democrats say demonstrate that the GOP is waging a “war on women.”
“Republicans deny they’re waging a war on women, yet they’ve launched a series of attacks on women’s access to health care and contraception this year,” Reid said before the Senate adjourned for a weeklong recess. “Now they have an opportunity to back up their excuses with action.”
The Democrats’ move comes just as polls are showing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney narrowing the gender gap with President Obama.
Democrats earlier charged that Republicans were anti-women because they opposed making birth control available for free under private health care plans and because the GOP weakened legislation intended to prevent domestic violence.
The Paycheck Fairness Act, Democrats said, will further highlight this gender war.
“This is the latest example,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said on MSNBC last week.
Still, Republicans are likely to vote against the paycheck bill, siding with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that say it would encourage frivolous lawsuits and place burdensome regulations on employers, particularly small businesses, by legally compelling them to justify their wage scales.
The bill would ban employers from punishing workers who try to learn what their co-workers earn. Another provision would allow employees who were discriminated against to claim unlimited financial damages.
“That’s a pretty big deal since the majority of claims brought to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are found to have no basis, but the employers end up having to spend tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees,” Michael Eastman, executive director of labor law policy for the Chamber of Commerce, told The Washington Examiner.
With Republicans controlling enough votes in the Senate to prevent the bill from advancing to a full debate, Democrats acknowledged they’ll likely have to settle for making a political statement rather than passing a law.
“This is an issue Americans should know how legislators feel about,” Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told The Examiner.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, dismissed the legislation as “part of an exercise to bring up votes that can be used in political commercials.”
He said the Senate should instead be focused on “big issues that will affect America,” such as reducing the national debt and preventing a series of tax cuts from expiring all at once at the end of the year.
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