Free Republic

America first put an equal-pay law on the books in 1963, when women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man. While this legislation was landmark at the time, its core provisions require updating if it is to fulfill its promise. Nearly 50 years later, the wage gap has narrowed by only 18 cents. Despite news reports that the gap narrowed in the last year, the census report released Thursday showed otherwise. Working women are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man -- and are paid less than men even when they have...

In his introduction, Mr. McCain said: “By the way: you may figure out from time to time Sarah and I don’t agree on every issue. What do you expect of two mavericks? To agree on everything?’’ And she bore him out on that a couple of times – once [on drilling in ANWR], and again when she suggested that they would be open to pushing for legislation on equality for women in the workforce, which sounded vaguely reminiscent of the equal pay for women bill that he opposed recently. That came up when a woman who identified herself as a...

The proper role of government is to provide equal opportunity for all, not preferential treatment for any one particular group. Comparable worth is a warped social theory and all U.S. legislatures and courts that have considered it have rejected it for that very reason. The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338), introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in the House and by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in the Senate, would amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even if a disparity in pay is determined to be unintentional. It would also require the Department...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- It's baaaack!! Yes, "comparable worth," which faded out around the same time the Bay City Rollers were disbanding, is making a comeback, under the euphemism "pay equity". To wit: the Fair Pay Act of 2007. Introduced by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in April (Illionois Sen. and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is one of 15 co-sponsors) the Act notes the existence of wage differentials between men and women

...Comparable worth was intended to eliminate the gap between the earnings of men and women. Feminists argued that only hidden discrimination could explain the relatively lower wages in female-dominated occupations, like librarians, compared to male-dominated jobs, like electricians. Under comparable worth, employers would be required to rate jobs according to abstract notions of intrinsic value based on years of education required for a given job, the level of responsibility it entailed, and working conditions involved. In a free market, however, wages -- like prices -- are set primarily by supply and demand. Diamonds are not intrinsically more valuable than water...

When Anthony Kennedy was nominated for the... Supreme Court in 1987, the president of [NOW] called him "sexist" for ruling against a comparable worth pay system for Washington state when he served on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This time around, Senator Olympia Snowe is doing the honors for John Roberts. Comp worth... was a feminist rallying cry taken up by Walter Mondale in his 1984 run for President. The idea was to guarantee that women who worked in jobs dominated by women (say, nurses or secretaries) would earn as much as men who worked in "comparable" jobs dominated...