Promise of equality: Pay up

We have all heard the statistics about how women are still making less money than men – only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And we are all still scratching our heads.

Equal pay? Aren’t we past that? Haven’t women finally leveled the playing field? Certainly. They are running businesses, running law firms and even running for president.

Yet, Obama made the statement that the issue persists last week when he signed into law a new equal-pay bill.

The new legislation extends the statute of limitations under which the victims of wage discrimination can file their claims. It comes in response to a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court to throw out the case of Lilly Ledbetter, who sued for discrimination only upon finding out years after she had been cheated.

The new extended filing period will allow people like Ledbetter, who are unaware of discrimination, to still be protected by the law.  Although some argue that this legislation is redundant and will only encourage frivolous suits, we say that it is a necessary protection against blatant discrimination. People who are the victims of these crimes cannot be held responsible for the fact that they were unaware of the injustice.

We think that this equal-pay bill will help combat workplace discrimination, and perhaps it will take us one step further to making equal pay a non-issue once and for all.