{"id":11852,"date":"2012-04-11T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T10:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=11852"},"modified":"2012-04-11T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T10:12:10","slug":"wisconsins-repeal-of-equal-pay-rights-adds-to-battles-for-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/04\/wisconsins-repeal-of-equal-pay-rights-adds-to-battles-for-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin\u2019s Repeal of Equal Pay Rights Adds to Battles for Women"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker speaks to an audience at a Waukesha County Republican dinner in Pewaukee, Wis., Saturday, March 31, 2012., Steven Senne \/ AP Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Michelle Goldberg<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Governor Scott Walker signed a repeal of his state\u2019s workplace-discrimination law\u2014the latest battleground over the issues that matter most to women.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

On Thursday, with little fanfare,<\/span> Wisconsin governor Scott Walker<\/span><\/a><\/span> signed a bill repealing the state\u2019s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which allowed victims of workplace discrimination to seek damages in state courts. In doing so, he demonstrated that our<\/span> political battles over women\u2019s rights<\/span><\/a><\/span> aren\u2019t just about sex and reproduction\u2014they extend to every aspect of women\u2019s lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole session has been anti-woman and anti-middle class, and this fits right in with that agenda,\u201d says Wisconsin state representative Christine Sinicki, a Democrat who co-authored the original legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Equal Pay law wasn\u2019t just about women\u2014it also offered protection from discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors. But it was enacted largely in response to<\/span> a large gap between men and women\u2019s compensation<\/span><\/a><\/span>, one that was worse than average in Wisconsin\u2014in 2009 the state ranked 36th in the country in terms of workplace gender parity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s law was similar to many others\u2014indeed, almost every state in the country has anti-discrimination laws that augment federal legislation. \u201cIt\u2019s often easier, faster, and cheaper to pursue a claim of discrimination in state court than in federal court,\u201d says Linda Meric, national director of 9to5, an organization devoted to working-women\u2019s issues. \u201cThe law is different in each state, but Wisconsin was certainly in the mainstream in having a law that provided remedies for employees who experienced discrimination on the job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To bring a suit under the law, a plaintiff first had to go through a state-level administrative process to prove discrimination. It was rigorous enough that in the two years the law was in effect, not a single equal-pay lawsuit was filed. Still, the law\u2019s supporters believe it has been effective in spurring businesses to pay women more fairly. Thus by 2010, the state had climbed to 24th in the national gender-parity rankings, with women making 78 percent as much as men, compared to 77 percent nationally. \u201cSince the law was put into place, employers actually took notice and were very conscious of the fact that they had to follow this law or they were at risk of a lawsuit,\u201d Sinicki argues.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the law\u2019s critics, though, even the threat of lawsuits put an intolerable burden on business. \u201cIf tomorrow you woke up and some policeman is at your door giving you a summons for something, the fact that you\u2019re innocent wouldn\u2019t make you happy, because you have to show you\u2019re innocent at some considerable time and expense,\u201d says Republican state senator Glenn Grothman, a major driver of the repeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grothman says companies are being bombarded with false accusations of discrimination. \u201cIt\u2019s an underreported problem, but a huge number of discrimination claims are baseless,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of them are filed by fired employees, and really today almost anybody is a protected class.\u201d As a result, he says, many companies are forced to pay fired employees to go away. He argues that the Wisconsin law, which allowed for damages of up to $300,000, the same amount as in federal law, raised the cost of doing business in the state to intolerable levels. \u201cIt just puts Wisconsin way out of whack with other states,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not sure there are any other states this bad off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, there are\u2014according to data from 9to5, 33 other states have either no cap on damages or the same $300,000 cap as Wisconsin. Still, even if the law isn\u2019t an outlier, it\u2019s not surprising that Grothman would see it as unjust, because he believes that the whole idea of pay discrimination against women is fraudulent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever gaps exist, he insists, stem from women\u2019s decision to prioritize childrearing over their careers. \u201cTake a hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not go go go. Now they\u2019re 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn\u2019t discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cWhat you\u2019ve got to look at, and Ann Coulter has looked at this, is you have to break it down by married and unmarried. Once you break it down by married and unmarried, the differential disappears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, despite Coulter\u2019s well-known expertise in the field, this is incorrect. A 2007 study by the American Association of University Women found that college-educated women earn only 80 percent as much as similarly educated men a year after graduation. Part of that is attributable to differences in life choices and family circumstances, but not all. \u201cAfter accounting for college major, occupation, industry, sector, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, enrollment status, GPA, institution selectivity, age, race\/ethnicity, region, marital status, and number of children, a 5 percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation was still unexplained,\u201d it said. After 10 years in the workforce, there\u2019s an unexplained 12 percent gap.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that pay discrimination is a myth is a myth in and of itself,\u201d says Fatima Goss Graves, vice president for education and employment at the National Women\u2019s Law Center. \u201cStudy after study has shown the exact opposite.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019ve got to look at, and Ann Coulter has looked at this, is you have to break it down by married and unmarried. Once you make it down by married and unmarried, the differential disappears.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Grothman doesn\u2019t accept these studies. When I ran the numbers by him, he replied, \u201cThe American Association of University Women is a pretty liberal group.\u201d Nor, he argued, does its conclusion take into account other factors, like \u201cgoals in life. You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever you think of this perspective, it will now have a major impact on the futures of Wisconsin women. \u201cScott Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature are rolling back the clock on women\u2019s rights, putting women\u2019s economic security in greater jeopardy at the exact moment that they should be assisting women to get ahead in this tough economy,\u201d says Meric.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it happens, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is from Wisconsin. He\u2019s compared the notion of a war on women to a war on caterpillars. If he wants to know why some women have bought into this ostensibly preposterous idea, he might take a look at what\u2019s going on at home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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