Congress Determines Only White Women Need Paycheck Fairness!

Tomorrow, Congress will vote on a so-called "Paycheck Fairness Act."  The Bill is supposed to address disparities in pay.  However, the Bill only refers to gender disparity.  When I called Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's (D-CT-3) office, I asked if I was misreading the Bill or if it only addressed gender disparities.  The lady responsible for the Paycheck Fairness Act stated that it - in fact - dealt only with gender disparities, but that in doing so it would cover Black, Latino and Asian women.

Hunh?!  How so?  Must be that Congress has determined that only White women need paycheck fairness!

Reparations means that we refuse to believe the hype!  Look at this chart detailing pay disparities.

The Wage Gap, by Gender and Race

(median annual earnings of black men and women, Hispanic men and women, and white women as a percentage of white men's median annual earnings)

Year	White men	Black men	Hispanic men	White women	Black women	Hispanic women
1970	100%	69.0%	n.a.	58.7%	48.2%	n.a.
1975	100	74.3	72.1%	57.5	55.4	49.3%
1980	100	70.7	70.8	58.9	55.7	50.5
1985	100	69.7	68.0	63.0	57.1	52.1
1990	100	73.1	66.3	69.4	62.5	54.3
1992	100	72.6	63.3	70.0	64.0	55.4
1994	100	75.1	64.3	71.6	63.0	55.6
1995	100	75.9	63.3	71.2	64.2	53.4
1996	100	80.0	63.9	73.3	65.1	56.6
1997	100	75.1	61.4	71.9	62.6	53.9
1998	100	74.9	61.6	72.6	62.6	53.1
1999	100	80.6	61.6	71.6	65.0	52.1
2000	100	78.2	63.4	72.2	64.6	52.8
2003	100	78.2	63.3	75.6	65.4	54.3
2004	100	74.5	63.2	76.7	68.4	56.9
2006	100	72.1	57.5	73.5	63.6	51.7

Source: U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity.

Clearly, Black men are earning less than White women.  And, Black women are earning substantially less than White women.  Surely, the Paycheck Fairness Act will do nothing for Black men - as Rep. Rosa DeLauro's office told me.  But, how will the Paycheck Fairness Act really help Black women?

Maybe I'm stupid (some will surely say I am).  But, it seems to me that the most this act would do is raise the pay of Black women to equity with Black men.  Truly that is a start.  But then once White women are on par with White men, we'd be left with the racial pay gap.  Am I missing something?

Must be that Congress has determined that only White women need paycheck fairness!

People want to say that reparations isn't needed.  But, here is a clear example - and this is not Affirmative Action.  It is not a handout.  It is fairness.  When Congress looks at the pay disparity between the genders they agree that something must be urgently done.  Yet, either they have not even looked at the pay disparity between the races or they don't think that something must be urgently done.  Again, as I was told by Rep. Rosa DeLauro's staffer: it (racial pay gap) is an important issue, but it is not dealt with by the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Presently, I'm waiting on Congressional Black Caucus Executive Director Patrice Willoughby to respond to my question about why the Congressional Black Caucus chose not to address this oversight.  Or, do they agree that only White women need paycheck fairness?

Email the Congressional Black Caucus, or call: 202.226.9776 and let them know that you want them to call for the Paycheck Fairness Act to be amended to include racial disparities!  Unless you agree that only White women need paycheck fairness...

Come and get your reparations!