Equal pay for equal work has been t
he law, some could argue, since 1920. Most would agree that the 1963 Equal Pay Law passed by Congress and then signed by President Kennedy removed any question of gender pay equality in the law.
In 2009 President Obama signed a new law with greater penalties and more narrow definitions of gender pay discrimination. In 2010 a new government agency was formed to fight gender pay discrimination. The new agency focuses the assets of five federal agencies on enforcing the equal pay laws, to include the Department of Justice.
Gender pay discrimination is wrong and it is and has been illegal for 52 years; so why do we continue to hear the statistics that women earn less than 
men? President Obama, who signed one of the laws making gender pay discrimination illegal, often decries the pervasive discrimination we find in earnings between the sexes. President Obama has the largest, best equipped, best trained, and by far the best funded law enforcement agency in the world (Department of Justice); so why is he not enforcing the law he signed? Why are we not seeing handcuffed perpetrators being marched into Federal Courts or federal prisons?
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also attacks gender pay inequality and plans to make it and the ”War on Women” a major issue in her presidential campaign. We have two federal laws targeting the issue of equal pay for equal work on the books. We also have portions of dozens of other laws that address gender pay equality that can be used to enforce federal and state laws. Why do we have this as an issue of law and not law or regulatory enforcement?
Using the standard referred to by our President and Secretary Clinton, women who work for them make some 10% to 14% less than men, but they and many others continue to condemn gender pay inequality? The logical thing to do would be to equalize gender pay on their personal staffs and then complain. The logical thing to do would be to enforce the law within their own staffs and then denounce the practice. The hypocrisy is monumental and it is troubling that the constitutionally protected watch dogs of government in the media are less than enthusiastic about pointing this out. Using the same standard that the media uses to condemn others, the media is practicing gender pay discrimination in its own ranks. Apparently it is far easier to complain about gender pay inequality than to follow the law.
Could it be that the Progressive Democrats are ignoring the very law they enacted to gain a campaign issue? Is the Department of Justice ignoring yet one more law to court votes for the Democrats and to excuse their own violations?
The war on women has been an effective campaign issue for the progressive socialists for over 50 years. Democrats who find it in their best interests to make voters feel victimized by an unjust society benefit from this belief. The social merit of having the vast majority of Americans believing we are victims of a socially unjust nation is debatable; however the value of this belief system to the Democratic vote is unquestionable.
A Pew Research Center study found some very interesting facts concerning gender pay: 15 % more women in the work force said they have taken time off to care for a child or family member than men. 14% more women than men have reduced their hours to spend more time taking care of family matters. 17% more women than men quit jobs to provide care to family. This is no eureka moment; most women in every society are more caring and nurturing than men.
Do we fully believe the President, former Sectary of State Clinton and the media are sexists and bigoted, or is the formula used to compute the pay differences inaccurate or misleading? Do we need more laws to ignore, or should we enforce the ones on the books? We will be besieged with this subject for the next 20 months; it would be nice if the injustice was finally corrected. Gender pay inequality is against the law; we should enforce the law and move forward.
When all is said and done however, a lot more will be said than done. Gender pay inequality or the “War on Women” is just too valuable to the progressive socialists as a wedge issue to fix. It must be, or why is it still an issue after 52 years?
