88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Scott Walker Reveals Extreme Views On Equal Pay
BY BRYCE COVERT
POSTED ON JUNE 24, 2015 AT 10:43 AM
CREDIT: JACQUELYN MARTIN, AP
In an interview with Boston Herald radio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential ticket next month, was asked by the host what he thought of Hillary Clinton’s support for equal pay legislation, and he responded by indicating that supporting such laws “pit one group against another group.”
The host brought up figures that showed Clinton supposedly paid her male staffers more, despite numbers that show women actually earned slightly more on average. But Walker replied, “I think an even bigger issue than that is that this is sadly something that would make her consistent with the president, and that is I believe that the president and now Hillary Clinton tend to think politically they do better if they pit one group of Americans versus another.” He went on to say that he thinks Americans are looking for leaders who “are going to stand up and say, ‘How do we make every American’s life better, how do we help everyone get a piece of the American Dream,’ not how do we pit one group against another group out there.”
His solution, he indicated, is to “help make sure that people have the skills and the education and qualifications they need to succeed in life, to live their piece of the American dream.”
He also likened the push for equal pay laws to seeking to make more people reliant on government. “For [Obama and Clinton], your measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government.”
But what Walker implies he’d rather do to address the wage gap — give women more education and qualifications — won’t do the trick. Women who recently graduated from college will make less in their first jobs than men who went to similar schools, studied similar topics, and had similar grades. The gap will remain no matter how much more education a woman pursues, and in fact it actually gets wider the more degrees she obtains. Women with graduate degrees have the widest gender wage gap, making just 69 percent of what men with the same education make, compared to the national average of 78 percent for those who work full time, year round.
Switching careers also won’t help. Women make less than men in virtually every single kind of job. And more skills don’t mean a smaller gap. Lower-skilled jobs that are dominated by men pay about $150 a week compared to those dominated by women, but high-skill jobs dominated by men pay nearly $500 more than women’s high-skilled fields.
Some bills that attempt to close the gender wage gap are also about empowering women. Currently, about half of American employees are banned from discussing their pay at work, but the Paycheck Fairness Act would remove that prohibition so women could find out if they’re being unfairly paid less and take action.
It’s not just Walker’s latest comments that put him in many ways to the right of some of his Republican rivals, who mostly say they want to close the wage gap but that more legislation will only be a boondoggle for lawyers. His actions also go further. In 2012, he overturned Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which gave workers more power to take action against unfair wage disparities in state court, rather than federal court where the costs are higher. He’s dismissed the law as simply giving women “more opportunity to sue” and said criticism of his repeal is a “bogus issue.” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), by contrast, signed two equal pay bills into law during his tenure, although also vetoed two others.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/06/24/3673423/scott-walker-equal-pay/
@DEAD7 can you support this?
BY BRYCE COVERT
POSTED ON JUNE 24, 2015 AT 10:43 AM
CREDIT: JACQUELYN MARTIN, AP
In an interview with Boston Herald radio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential ticket next month, was asked by the host what he thought of Hillary Clinton’s support for equal pay legislation, and he responded by indicating that supporting such laws “pit
The host brought up figures that showed Clinton supposedly paid her male staffers more, despite numbers that show women actually earned slightly more on average. But Walker replied, “I think an even bigger issue than that is that this is sadly something that would make her consistent with the president, and that is I believe that the president and now Hillary Clinton tend to think politically they do better if they pit one group of Americans versus another.” He went on to say that he thinks Americans are looking for leaders who “are going to stand up and say, ‘How do we make every American’s life better, how do we help everyone get a piece of the American Dream,’ not how do we pit one group against another group out there.”
His solution, he indicated, is to “help make sure that people have the skills and the education and qualifications they need to succeed in life, to live their piece of the American dream.”
He also likened the push for equal pay laws to seeking to make more people reliant on government. “For [Obama and Clinton], your measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government.”
But what Walker implies he’d rather do to address the wage gap — give women more education and qualifications — won’t do the trick. Women who recently graduated from college will make less in their first jobs than men who went to similar schools, studied similar topics, and had similar grades. The gap will remain no matter how much more education a woman pursues, and in fact it actually gets wider the more degrees she obtains. Women with graduate degrees have the widest gender wage gap, making just 69 percent of what men with the same education make, compared to the national average of 78 percent for those who work full time, year round.
Switching careers also won’t help. Women make less than men in virtually every single kind of job. And more skills don’t mean a smaller gap. Lower-skilled jobs that are dominated by men pay about $150 a week compared to those dominated by women, but high-skill jobs dominated by men pay nearly $500 more than women’s high-skilled fields.
Some bills that attempt to close the gender wage gap are also about empowering women. Currently, about half of American employees are banned from discussing their pay at work, but the Paycheck Fairness Act would remove that prohibition so women could find out if they’re being unfairly paid less and take action.
It’s not just Walker’s latest comments that put him in many ways to the right of some of his Republican rivals, who mostly say they want to close the wage gap but that more legislation will only be a boondoggle for lawyers. His actions also go further. In 2012, he overturned Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which gave workers more power to take action against unfair wage disparities in state court, rather than federal court where the costs are higher. He’s dismissed the law as simply giving women “more opportunity to sue” and said criticism of his repeal is a “bogus issue.” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), by contrast, signed two equal pay bills into law during his tenure, although also vetoed two others.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/06/24/3673423/scott-walker-equal-pay/
@DEAD7 can you support this?
