Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
The Obama Administration’s latest foray into their favorite construct – the phony war on women – appears to be backfiring as their push to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act has done little more than reveal the pay discrepancies between men and women in the president’s own administration.
The New York Times is reporting that yesterday’s speech by President Barack Obama highlighting the pay differences between men and women in the United States was meant to make an issue of the gender gap in compensation across the country; however, the move has only brought more scrutiny on his own lopsided hiring practices.
According to the American Enterprise Institute, the median annual salary for women in the White House last year was $65,000 compared to $73,729 for men. This means women are only being paid 88 cents for every dollar that a man earns.
When pressed about this fact at a news conference yesterday, press secretary Jay Carney said “Obviously, at the 88 cents you cite, that is not 100, but it is better than the national average” of 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns.
Carney also disparaged the 88 cents figure, saying that those numbers are an average that is pulled down by the fact that women fill more lower-level positions than men.
However, critics say the president is using the 77-cent statistic to drum up political support from women even though those numbers are also an aggregate of salaries where women make up a larger portion of lower-paying positions.
“The wage gap is real, but the White House does itself a disservice — and embarrasses itself in the process — by grasping for misleading statistics that don’t tell the whole story,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner.
Conservative lawmakers are opposing the Paycheck Fairness Act because it’s a redundant law. Congress passed the Equal Pay Act 50 years ago and President Obama signed another wage equality bill known as the Lily Ledbetter Act into law in 2009. It’s already against the law to pay a woman less than a man with comparable experience in the same job. So why do we need another one?
For politics, says Republican National Committee press secretary Kirsten Kukowski.
“These are the same Democrats who controlled the White House and Senate for the last five years but always seem to wait for an election year to push another empty promise,” Kurkowski writes, calling it a “desperate political ploy” by an administration that will do anything to distract women from issues such as unemployment and ObamaCare.
She also explained why the Paycheck Fairness Act will end up hurting more women than it helps.
“The Paycheck Fairness Act . . . will cut flexibility in the work place for working moms and end merit pay that rewards good work—the very things that are important to us. The ‘fix’ that Democrats propose . . . would, however, tightly regulate how employers can pay their employees. This law will not create ‘equal’ pay, but it will make it nearly impossible for employers to tie compensation to work quality, productivity and experience, reduce flexibility in the workplace, and make it far easier to file frivolous lawsuits that line the pockets of trial lawyers. Ultimately, this bill will hurt all workers, especially women.
Of course, we ladies won’t hear this explanation on the nightly news. Instead, we’ll have to endure another round of sniveling platitudes reminiscent of the past about how conservative lawmakers are standing in the way of better pay for women.
Let’s do whatever we can to insure that our sisters get the facts they need to see through these inane media-supported ploys that are costing them their health, their welfare – and their dignity!
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