Monthly Archive for January, 2013

Progress on Women’s Reproductive Rights

Published on January 29, 2013 in Debra Ness and Reproductive Health. 1 Comment

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Last week, after a pro-choice president was sworn in for a second term and as we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, something pretty spectacular happened.  NBC News and the Wall Street Journal released a public opinion survey that showed the majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.  Just 24 percent want to overturn Roe, and 70 percent say they do not.

While we have always known that few Americans want to return to the days when a woman had to risk her health and her life to end a pregnancy, these numbers represent welcome and significant progress in public support for reproductive rights.  This survey – which was large and commissioned by news organizations without a stake in the outcome – found greater support for keeping abortion legal all or most of the time than any poll that has asked the question in a decade.

It is a measure of how far we have come and, I think, how far out of the mainstream our opponents are.  During the last election cycle, candidates with extreme anti-choice views talked about “legitimate rape,” referred to pregnancy resulting from rape as “God’s will,” and shared goals that are repugnant to all of us who respect women and care about the health and well-being of families.  Our opponents’ extremism is never more clear than when they fight to defund Planned Parenthood and other women’s health clinics, and to take away women’s coverage for birth control. And they are doing that a lot these days.

I believe the public recoils at their agenda, which came out of the shadows in the last election cycle.  And I know that the public recognizes that our tireless work to defeat their initiatives, and to make contraception and reproductive health care available to all, is what women, families, communities and the country need.

So this poll provided some welcome news that is a measure of our progress, and a reminder that our values are America’s values.

But at this time when our opponents’ support among state and federal lawmakers far outweighs their public support, we still face enormous challenges.  Securing women’s right to choose is not enough if women do not have access to the reproductive health care they need – and all across this country, women’s health clinics, the providers who work at them, and the women who seek care there are under siege.  Many women have to drive hundreds of miles to find reproductive health care, endure unnecessary waiting periods and gauntlets of protestors.  In the last two years, states have enacted some 135 measures restricting abortion care, and many of them are bad medicine, requiring doctors to give women information that is medically inaccurate, requiring women to have ultrasounds and counseling that are medically unnecessary and delay the care they need, and allowing employers to impose their beliefs and deny women insurance coverage for medications their doctors have prescribed.

But as public opinion shifts, the legislatures will too.  We’ll make sure of it.  And we’ll continue fighting until access to reproductive health care is secure for all women, regardless of age, location, income, or whether they get their coverage from private insurance or through a government program like Medicaid.

After Four Years, It’s Time for Concrete Action – An Executive Order from President Obama – to Help Reduce the Wage Gap

Published on January 29, 2013 in Judith Lichtman and Workplace Fairness. 0 Comments

Judith L. Lichtman, Senior Advisor

Four years ago today, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – a law that restored pay discrimination victims’ right to have their day in court. It was the first bill the president signed into law, and it has allowed women across the country to challenge unlawful discrimination when they receive a discriminatory paycheck.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was a critical and necessary step to help combat pay discrimination. But much more remains to be done to help prevent the discriminatory practices that contribute to a wage gap that costs women, on average, 23 cents for every dollar paid to men. Fortunately, there are concrete proposals that Congress and the Obama administration can – and should – advance right away.

Legislation like the Fair Pay Act, which was introduced today by Senator Tom Harkin (D – Iowa) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D – D.C.), would help to ensure equal pay for those who hold jobs that require comparable abilities, knowledge and skills. The bill is modeled on similar laws already on the books in a number of states.

The Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced last week by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D – Md.) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D – Conn.), would also help reduce the wage gap. One critical provision would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for discussing pay. Nearly half of the workforce is currently prohibited or discouraged from talking about pay with their coworkers, making it nearly impossible to identify and challenge discriminatory practices – and giving employers little incentive to comply with the law.

Lilly Ledbetter’s own experience provides a classic example. After working for 19 years as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire factory where there was a policy that prohibited employees from discussing their pay, she received an anonymous note telling her she was being paid less than her male coworkers with the same job. Goodyear’s policy allowed for discrimination with impunity.

If we are going to eradicate pay discrimination in this country, workers need to be able to discuss their pay without fear of losing their jobs. That is why, in addition to supporting critical legislation, we are calling on President Obama to address pay discrimination by issuing an executive order that ensures that employees of federal contractors can discuss pay without retaliation.

The federal government has an obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to perpetuate unlawful pay discrimination. And the president made a point of including equal pay in the vision for the future of America he laid out in his inaugural speech last week.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act marked an important step on the road to fair pay. With an executive order, the administration should take the next step toward an economically secure future for America’s women and their families.

An Integral Step Forward for Women, Families and the Nation

Published on January 23, 2013 in Debra Ness and Workplace Fairness. 0 Comments

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

“Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.”

Just two days ago, President Obama chose to include these words in his second inaugural address – a rousing speech that laid out a clear vision for an equal and just America. And now, with the introduction of the Paycheck Fairness Act today, members of Congress have an opportunity to take a step toward making that vision a reality.

Despite historic advances for women in past decades, America’s working women are still paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, resulting in more than $11,000 in lost income each year. For African American women and Latinas, who are paid just 70 and 60 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to men, the financial impact of the wage gap is even worse.

Just last month, the National Partnership analyzed the impact of this gap on families’ ability to make ends meet. We found that, in just one year, eliminating the wage gap would mean African American women would have enough money for more than two years’ worth of food or more than three years’ worth of family health insurance premiums. Latinas would have enough for nearly two years of rent or an additional 5,743 gallons of gas.

Losses of this magnitude are harmful for any working family, but they are especially painful for the nearly 40 percent of households headed by African American women or Latinas who live in poverty.

An America where hardworking women do not get a fair shake and instead face discrimination in the workplace is not what our families need and deserve. And it’s not the America that Congress had in mind 50 years ago when it sought to address the harm caused by unfair pay practices by passing the Equal Pay Act.

Fortunately, this Congress has the chance to do something about it. It can advance the nation’s legacy of fairness and equal opportunity by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act – a bill that would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, help to break patterns of wage discrimination, and establish stronger workplace protections for women.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is a critical step forward for women, families and the nation. For Congress, there should be no option but to pass it right away.

The Flu Thrives Without Paid Sick Days

Published on January 14, 2013 in Debra Ness and Work & Family. 0 Comments

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Cross-posted from the Huffington Post.

By now, we have all heard about or been affected by the influenza outbreak that is sweeping the country and taking a staggering toll. At least 44 states have been hit, thousands of hospitalizations and dozens of deaths have been reported so far, and some are already comparing this year’s outbreak to the H1N1 pandemic of 2009.

Story after story carries the common-sense recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that people who are feeling sick should stay home. The CDC includes this as a foremost component of flu treatment and prevention.

But what many don’t realize is that staying home when you’re sick is a privilege in this country — one that more than 40 percent of the private sector workforce does not have because no matter how long they hold their jobs or how hard they work, they can’t earn a single paid sick day. Millions more can’t earn any paid sick days to use to care for a sick child or family member.

As a result, workers are forced to forego the medical treatment and recovery time they need. Instead, because they have to pay the rent and put food on the table, they go to work sick and send ill children to school or daycare.

It is during public health crises like these that we are reminded of the grave consequences of our country’s failure to let workers earn paid sick days.

Take, for example, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. (Despite the many comparisons being made to H1N1 already, this outbreak is currently not at the same magnitude.) During that outbreak, an estimated 7 million people in the United States caught the flu from their co-workers. And according to the American Journal of Public Health, people without paid sick days were at greater risk of being exposed to the virus.

Part of what makes the lack of paid sick days such a public health issue is that it is the very workers who have the most frequent contact with the public — such as those working in food service, child care and personal care — who are the least likely to be able to earn paid sick time. The result is a recipe for increased contagion in our workplaces, communities and across the nation.

The good news is that this problem is solvable, as some lawmakers and voters in one state and a handful of cities across the country have demonstrated. They have listened to the people in their localities and followed the advice of public health organizations by establishing common sense paid sick days standards — with great success.

But a health crisis such as this one makes painfully clear that it is time for a federal standard. And lawmakers and employers are simply not doing all they can and should to prevent the spread of illness.

There is a bill, the Healthy Families Act, which has been introduced in the last several Congresses. It has been the subject of in-depth hearings, and it would put the nation on track to implement a national paid sick days standard similar to the ones working well in places that have put such standards in place. Its passage should be a high priority.

A national paid sick days standard would not stop the flu, but it would mean that more workers and their families could stay home to recover when they get it. That would slow the spread of contagion and prevent low-income families from facing impossible choices when the flu or other illnesses strike.

So, as we continue to see, hear and experience the effects of this epidemic, let’s remember that there is a simple, yet critical, step we haven’t taken. And let’s do something about it.

Fair Pay: An Economic Imperative for Women of Color and the Nation

Published on January 9, 2013 in Debra Ness and Workplace Fairness. 0 Comments

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Every day, tens of millions of hardworking women get up, go to work and do all we can to help our employers, keep our jobs and make enough money to put food on the table, pay the bills and provide for our families. We make up nearly half of the workforce, and we are the breadwinners in two-thirds of families. We are workers, business owners, entrepreneurs and job creators – economic engines in our communities and families.

Yet women are paid significantly less than men due to a punishing gender-based wage gap – and African American women and Latinas suffer most. 

African American women and Latinas who work full time in the United States are paid just 70 cents and 60 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to full-time working men. And according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from the National Partnership for Women & Families, in states like New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, the wage gap for some women of color is near 50 cents for every dollar. That’s like working for two weeks and getting paid for one – it’s unacceptable and it hurts families, communities and the economy.

Losing tens of thousands of dollars every year is no small matter for any family, particularly not for the nearly 40 percent of African-American- and Latina-headed households living in poverty. If the wage gap were eliminated, African American women would have enough money for more than two years’ worth of food and more than three years’ worth of family health insurance premiums. Latinas would have enough for nearly two years of rent and an additional 5,743 gallons of gas – every year.

It’s unthinkable – unbelievable, really – that at a time when many people think women have achieved equality in the workplace and when women’s income is so critical, that a punishing gender- and race-based wage gap persists.

Despite the claims of the opponents of measures that would address this gap, it simply cannot be explained away. Significant pay differences persist no matter women’s perceived choices, work patterns, education, location or industry. And it is made worse for women of color by persistent racial discrimination. African American women, Latinas and their families deserve much better.

If lawmakers are serious about helping families and rebuilding our economy, then closing the wage gap should be a high priority. The Paycheck Fairness Act would help fight wage discrimination and establish stronger workplace protections for women in all states. It would promote economic stability for a critical segment of the workforce and, in turn, strengthen our national economy.

This new analysis is a stark reminder for lawmakers at the federal level and in states that curbing pay discrimination and promoting fair pay for women must be an across-the-board economic imperative. It’s time for members of Congress, new and returning, to act.

State-specific information on the wage gap for African American women can be found at www.NationalPartnership.org/AAGap. State-specific findings for Latinas can be found at www.NationalPartnership.org/LatinaGap.

An Overdue Step in the Right Direction

Published on January 3, 2013 in Marya Torrez and Reproductive Health. 0 Comments

Marya Torrez, Senior Reproductive Health Policy Counsel

The National Partnership is proud to have been part of a coalition that worked tirelessly – and successfully – to repeal an unjust and discriminatory ban on abortion services for women serving our country in the armed forces.

The bill President Obama signed today took a small and long overdue step toward ensuring greater abortion access because, last week, the Senate and House agreed to provide insurance coverage for abortion for servicewomen and military dependents whose pregnancies result from rape or incest. This is very good news, and a tribute to the tenacity of Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) who has long championed this reform.

Senator Shaheen’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act remedies a longstanding wrong by bringing reproductive health coverage for military women in line with coverage for other federal employees, women enrolled in Medicaid, and most other women who rely on the federal government for their health insurance. This was an important and necessary step for women serving our country in the armed forces.

But it is not enough. Coverage of abortion remains woefully inadequate for women enrolled in federal health plans. Since the Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976, Congress has prohibited women who rely on publicly-funded health insurance from getting coverage for abortion in most cases.

And women in the military still face particular obstacles to obtaining abortion services.

While servicewomen who are survivors of rape or incest will now have abortion services covered through their health plans, other women in the military who need abortion services are unable to obtain those services at military health facilities, even if they pay for it with their own money. This forces military women serving in countries where there is no access to safe or legal abortion services to compromise their health by delaying access to care. Even worse, it induces them to seek out illegal and often unsafe abortion care. President Obama and the Department of Defense support changing this outrageous policy, but so far, Congress has not acted.

All women need access to abortion coverage so that they can make the best possible decisions for themselves and their families. We commend Congress and President Obama for acting to bring equity to women serving our country in the armed forces. But it is just a small step; we must continue to fight until all women have insurance coverage that includes full coverage of reproductive health services, including abortion.