Paycheck Fairness Act fails to progress in Senate
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WASHINGTON—Voting along party lines, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday blocked further progress on the Obama Administration-supported Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have made it easier for women claiming unequal pay to pursue class action litigation, among other provisions.
With 60 votes needed to open debate on the legislation, the Senate vote was 52-47 in favor, or eight votes short. The bill's failure had been widely predicted.
The measure was opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others. The Chamber said in a letter Monday to Senators that the bill, S. 3220, would “among other things, expand remedies under (the Equal Pay Act) to include unlimited punitive and compensatory damages, significantly erode employer defenses for legitimate pay disparities, and invalid tools for enforcement by the Labor Department.”
In a statement in response to the vote, President Barack Obama said, “It is incredibly disappointing that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class, Senate Republicans put partisan politics ahead of American women and their families. Despite the progress that has been made over the years, women continue to earn substantially less than men for performing the same work.”
Backers of the legislation similarly failed to win enough support to proceed to a vote on the legislation in 2010, with observers at the time pointing out the Obama administration has won approval of only one significant employment-related bill, the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
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