For those that don’t speak French: the title of this post is based on the national motto of France (and Haiti) and means: “Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)”. The origins lie in the French Revolution (1789–1799) and I always found it a very nice motto. Men and women are all equal – regardless of age, race or country of origin.
The reason I bring this up is that I was amazed to find out that in the USA there is no law that says you have to pay women an equal amount if they perform the same work as their male counterpart. In other words: no equality there.
That fact alone is mind boggling to me. I mean: we are talking about (supposedly) one the most advanced democracies on Earth how come this isn’t a given?
I found out this (to me) unknown fact yesterday, because the US Senate voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have plugged this whole in legislation:
Paycheck Fairness Act – Amends the portion of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) known as the Equal Pay Act to revise remedies for, enforcement of, and exceptions to prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages.
The only reason I can think up why the Senate would do this, is that the Republicans just want to show that they now are a force to be reckoned with (after the latest elections). Regardless: it’s off couse ridiculous they voted against this law or that this is necessary in 2010. But if you look at the graph that goes with this article you can see for yourself why it is needed. There is huge gap in earnings between men and women and that is just wrong!
Women had no political rights in pre-Revolutionary France; they couldn’t vote or hold any political office. They were considered “passive” citizens; forced to rely on men to determine what was best for them in the government. It was the men who decided and women were forced to accept this male domination.
One would have thought a modern country like the USA would have no reason to be against equality between men and woman. Also when it comes to their paycheck.
The fact that woman earn less then men is just ridiculous. If two entities perform the same when doing a profession. They should be compensated the same way as well.. But hey when has the world been that logical?
Besides we Europeans don’t have a much better climate either. Woman in Holland for instance make 20% less then their male co-workers. Welcome to the 21st century 🙂
http://www.loonwijzer.nl/home/vrouwenloonwijzer/beloningsverschillen-m-v/beloningsverschillen-m-v#loonverschillen-m-v-gemiddeld