WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and other Democrats on Tuesday seized on Equal Pay Day – a symbolic event dramatizing how much longer it takes a woman to earn as much as a man – to court women voters and call out Republicans for inaction on the issue.
Obama dedicated a new national monument to women’s equality and pushed Congress to pass legislation. He suggested he’s encouraged by movement toward full gender equality in many arenas – including corporate boardrooms, professional sports and presidential politics.
“If we truly value fairness then America should be a level playing field,” the president said, as he joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski and other Democrats at the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum in D.C., the onetime home of the National Women’s Party now designated as Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. Alva Belmont and Alice Paul were figures in the women’s rights and suffrage movements.
The Democrats’ focus on equal pay comes amid a presidential campaign where the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, has alienated female voters in droves, leading to GOP fears he could diminish the party’s standing with that key constituency for years to come. Yet once again this year, as Obama and Democratic lawmakers trumpet their equal pay proposals at news conferences and briefings, Republicans have little to offer in return.
“We feel we shouldn’t be playing identity politics, we should be working together to strengthen families,” said Sarah Chamberlain, president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which advocates for pragmatic, center-right policies.
Democrats support legislation requiring employers to show pay disparity is not based on gender, among other steps. The bill, which passed the House when it was under Democratic control but was blocked by Senate Republicans, builds on the first law Obama signed as president, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, aimed at making it easier for women to sue over wage discrimination.
For their part, the Republicans who control the House and Senate have announced no plans to act on legislation addressing pay inequity, even though a few GOP lawmakers are pushing bills on the issue. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said she is hoping for Democratic support for her narrowly focused bill allowing employees to share wage information. GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte said she is working with House Republicans to get on board with her broader bill, modeled on one that passed in her home state of New Hampshire.
“To say that Republicans don’t care about equal pay, that’s just ludicrous that anybody even says that,” Fischer said. “Everybody cares about equal pay. That’s a value that we all share.”
Republican women dispute the notion that “women’s issues” are separate from any other issues, noting that women care strongly about national security, the drug epidemic and other matters not specifically related to their gender. With the GOP presidential primary season veering chaotically toward a contested convention, most Capitol Hill Republicans are also avoiding taking any steps that could connect them to the mess, including the perception that they are acting in response to Trump.
“I just put these in the context of good government and the right thing to do. I don’t put it in the context of anything else,” Ayotte said. “I mean I’ve been working on this well before this presidential race.”
