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Sen. Mikulski Erupts on Equal Pay Issue: 'I Get Volcanic,' 'Angry'
April 9, 2014 - 4:23 PM
By Barbara Boland
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) wants us to know she's mad - angry, outraged, even - that her Senate colleagues didn't pass her Paycheck Fairness Act today. The bill failed to gain cloture by a vote of 53 to 44.
"I'll tell you what I'm tired of hearing," she yelled, "that somehow or other we're too emotional when we talk."
"To simply get a bill on the Senate floor, we have to vote on a motion to proceed on whether we're going to take it up. And because this is now going to take a 60 vote majority, because of the invocation of this fog of filibuster, we can't even get to majority vote to make sure women get equal pay for equal work!"
"No wonder people are fed up with us," Mikulski said. "They wonder about us and why, when all is said and done, why more gets said than gets done."
"We heard this morning the talk about the economy. You know one way to help the economy? It's for people to make more money."
"You know what I'm tired of hearing? That somehow or other we're too emotional when we talk. Well I am emotional. I am so emotional about this. I tell you that if we don't pass this bill, I'm gonna press on. It bring tears to my eyes, to know how women are working so hard and are getting paid less. It makes me emotional to hear that. Then when I hear all of these phony reasons, some are mean and some are meaningless. I do get emotional.
"I get angry. I get outraged. I get volcanic."
Before getting so angry, Senator Mikulski might want to take a look at a law that requires employers to not discriminate on the basis of sex. It's called the Equal Pay Act - and it was passed in 1963.
April 9, 2014 - 4:23 PM
By Barbara Boland
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) wants us to know she's mad - angry, outraged, even - that her Senate colleagues didn't pass her Paycheck Fairness Act today. The bill failed to gain cloture by a vote of 53 to 44.
"I'll tell you what I'm tired of hearing," she yelled, "that somehow or other we're too emotional when we talk."
"To simply get a bill on the Senate floor, we have to vote on a motion to proceed on whether we're going to take it up. And because this is now going to take a 60 vote majority, because of the invocation of this fog of filibuster, we can't even get to majority vote to make sure women get equal pay for equal work!"
"No wonder people are fed up with us," Mikulski said. "They wonder about us and why, when all is said and done, why more gets said than gets done."
"We heard this morning the talk about the economy. You know one way to help the economy? It's for people to make more money."
"You know what I'm tired of hearing? That somehow or other we're too emotional when we talk. Well I am emotional. I am so emotional about this. I tell you that if we don't pass this bill, I'm gonna press on. It bring tears to my eyes, to know how women are working so hard and are getting paid less. It makes me emotional to hear that. Then when I hear all of these phony reasons, some are mean and some are meaningless. I do get emotional.
"I get angry. I get outraged. I get volcanic."
Before getting so angry, Senator Mikulski might want to take a look at a law that requires employers to not discriminate on the basis of sex. It's called the Equal Pay Act - and it was passed in 1963.
But I always got paid as much as any guy.
I know that because people talk (constantly) about their pay and compensation. Also, I see the books today and pay is based on experience and performance multiplied by responsibility - the more you are responsible for, the more you get paid. Of course, we aren't union.
It's difficult to make the case for women who drop out of the workforce for a few years here and there. Why would they get the job that would ordinarily go to the person who attended all the meetings, stayed late, and was on-call weekends and vacations?
Why would the payroll clerk get the same pay as the the guy who suits up and crawls down a sewer? Or the guy who runs the snowplows at 3:00 a.m.? Or the gal who works the graveyard shift in the ER?
Women make choices about career issues that impact compensation. Clean, safe, short-day jobs that involve a lot of "people-time" and don't involve math or solitude just pay less most of the time. That's because it's easy to recruit and train someone for those jobs.
- See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/ba....Ata07GeG.dpuf
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