Former IWF Women Who Make the World Better award recipient Karin Agness has a good piece over at Townhall.com looking at the push from the Obama camp to make equal pay a major issue in the 2008 election. Karin points out the misdirection that is too often goes along with politicians talking about “equal pay”:
The 1963 Equal Pay Act prohibits wage differentials based on sex. Obama, however, is still promoting the idea that women are not paid the same as men because of discrimination. What is he really talking about? While he prefers to talk in generalities instead of specifics as to how he will achieve equal pay, he seems to be advocating “comparable worth,” a means to achieve pay equity by requiring employers to pay people in jobs “comparable” to each other the same. For example, a coal miner, a job traditionally fulfilled by men, might be judged “comparable” to a secretary, a job traditionally fulfilled by women, so employers would have to pay people in these jobs equal wages. Advocates for “comparable worth” lost the battle because of the feared consequences of trying to compare jobs. As a result, Obama is pursuing his quest for “comparable worth” under a different label, equal pay. He even cosponsored the Fair Pay Act, which refers to “equivalent jobs.”
Read more here. Check out the IWF Female Factor on this topic here.