House passes pay equity bill

[Jacobtm]

It seems that this legislation only provides for action if a specific employer can be found to be guilty of wage discrimination.

This being the case, the argument about whether, statistically, women receive less pay because they simply work in less lucrative jobs is moot. This legislation will only affect those employers and employees in situations where sex-based wage discrimination can be proven. To say that there is absolutely no sex-based wage discrimination in the U.S. is absurd, and for those women unfortunate enough to be in a situation where they are being paid less than a male counter-part, this could hopefully help.

So far so good, unless I've missed something hidden within the legislation.

[Jacobtm]

It seems that this legislation only provides for action if a specific employer can be found to be guilty of wage discrimination.

This being the case, the argument about whether, statistically, women receive less pay because they simply work in less lucrative jobs is moot. This legislation will only affect those employers and employees in situations where sex-based wage discrimination can be proven. To say that there is absolutely no sex-based wage discrimination in the U.S. is absurd, and for those women unfortunate enough to be in a situation where they are being paid less than a male counter-part, this could hopefully help.

So far so good, unless I've missed something hidden within the legislation.

Why did the article and the people pushing for this bill use a statistics that has nothing to do with the facts at hand?  Because the statistic made them look good.  Why didn't they use appropriate statistics?  Because those stats don't show what these ladies what they want them to show.  Why is that?  Because the facts don't support their position. 

Emotion does though!  Especially when you use worthless numbers as "proof" that your cause is valid.

Does it really shock you that deceptive language/logic was used in the U.S. Congress to pass a piece of legislation, or that emotional pleas outweighed rational arguments? Sure, the stats they used were misleading, but it doesn't change the fact that there indeed are cases of women being paid less for equal work, and this legislation just provides for remedies in those cases.

You're acting as if the bill mandates a 33% pay raise for all working women in the U.S., but no employer who isn't discriminating against women has to worry.

So if, as you're saying, the statistics don't at all reflect reality, and that gender-based wage discrimination isn't happening, then nothing will change, even with the passage of this law.