Washington, D.C. — Lots of hand wringing, tears, and earnest pleas for change. Equal Pay for Equal Work. Only the coldest of hearts could ignore it.
And the Republicans did. Why? Obviously, it must be the Patriarchy, Privilege, racism, sexism, or any other -ism that has become the “go-to” excuse when others don’t blindly go along with the newest “woke” agenda change (I use a strobe).
But once an individual divorces themselves from all of the emotions, (tough to do), another answer emerges: The Equal Pay Act already passed.
President Kennedy signed it into law in 1963.
It was originally introduced by a Republican Congresswoman from New York, Winifred Stanley, and ultimately passed both houses.
So why did GOP Congressmen kill this new bill? Because the “Paycheck Fairness Act” just didn’t do … much of anything. At least as far as equal wages go.
It changed a few definitions around. (The biggest changes were including various kinds of gender identity issues; Democrats placed safe money that Republicans would oppose that; see below.)
It repeats many times what is already the law.
It stated a few new, well, very confusing standards. I think; not sure what to make of some of the definitions.
It authorizes the EEOC to spend money to train its employees to do things they already do.
It authorizes yet another do-nothing “National Task Force.”
It authorizes and funds a study on wage inequality among teenagers.
But more importantly, why it was opposed?
The bill stated some new standards that many people couldn’t make sense of. Such as what is the practical effect of this language? Does the EEOC or District Court judges suddenly get powers that aren’t being anticipated? The same guys that write the laws yap and wail endlessly when someone discovers a novel but totally legal interpretation that gets slapped with the label “loophole.”
It occurs that if a bill is somewhat vaguely written it could have had sweeping effects on businesses and workers. And becomes more troubling when the sponsors themselves could not give the simplest answers to those questions.
Now, did this bill actually do anything new? Perhaps something that might address this all=pervasive gender-based wage inequality that seems to be everywhere according to the sales brochure? (Personal note: If I could convince a woman to work for 77% of the wages that a man gets then I would. So far, every woman I have ever hired seems to be substantially sharper than this.)
A: Nope. In fact, the people who wrote the bill couldn’t identify what in the bill did that either.
And here comes the manipulation: this bill was not intended to do anything.
It’s a prime example of a bill that is proposed because it lets politicians say, “Look! Look at me! I am doing something. About an issue you care about deeply.” The “It’s already been done” part seems to get left out. Good thing, too: if the country paid attention the fact that something had already been done then we might start asking some uncomfortable questions, such as “Why haven’t you guys done anything about what has become the law??”
If not, why, those politicians would just try to pass the same do-nothing bill every few years.
I’ll give you a minute to hit Google and ask how many times this paycheck fairness bill has been introduced in the last decade.
If it passes it’s more or less irrelevant, and makes no substantial legal changes. At least about the issue it claims to address.
But when it doesn’t pass you can publicly weep that your opponents don’t support “paycheck fairness.” Or that they hate women. Or are pushing the patriarchy/privilege/racist/sexist agenda that they have at the core of their cold, dark hearts.
This was not the first time. And it won’t be the last.
And low-information voter base coalesces into a block a subdued, controllable and unquestioning rage. That last part is really important.
So, propaganda is exactly what the Paycheck Fairness Act is. This was not the first time. And it won’t be the last.
Passing the same laws over and over again doesn’t do anything related to the problem.
We already have this law.
For over 50 years. And not to sound condescending, but to enforce the law, you actually have to enforce them.
Pass all the laws in the word while proclaiming the same thing is bad a million times over won’t fix the problem if you don’t enforce those laws. The practical enforcement problem is that the law is often a very blunt instrument and there just isn’t a substantial gender pay gap, at least not in the way advocates publicly claim (i.e. a woman earns 80-cents on the dollar that a man does for the same work).
And while pay discrimination does exist, it’s not the sort of thing that blanket-legislation will cure. It’s very difficult to remedy a pay “problem” that isn’t very prevalent. And the problem that exist doesn’t happen the way people pushing the issue desire it to be happening-to fit their rhetoric.
Another example occurred when some poor sap got chained to a fence, tortured and murdered for the crime of being gay. Our elected saviors leapt in action, and slung all sorts of “Hate Crime” laws in to action to convince the great unwashed that they were actually doing something.
Unfortunately, murder, kidnapping, assault and battery-these were ALREADY illegal. And they didn’t get enforced, obviously.
And, oh goody, just take a look-see at what the noble “Hate Crime” laws have morphed into; assaults on Freedom of Speech, Canceling, Snowflake Culture, lawsuits over being offended.
But that’s OK, just so long as no one gets their feelings hurt.
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