We just heard that the House is set to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act this week, and the Senate could vote as early as next week! Turns out that while the economic security package is tied up in negotiations, there is a rare window of unscheduled open time to pass long-needed bills. Congress is thinking action…and thanks to the incredible advocacy of MomsRising members and our aligned partners over the past year, Congress is thinking fair pay!

Tell Congress to not to miss this open window to pass Fair Pay!

Follow this link and send your letter: Momsrising.org.

Post from: Blisstree

Fair Pay on Obama’s Desk

I turned 35 on Saturday.

We had a California picnic at the lake.

My husband got me this fabulous Momsrising.org T-shirt.

Of course, what I want for my birthday is equal pay, family leave insurance, and gender equality. It’s not just a t-shirt. It’s political action.

He gets me.

When I was a teenager I thought I’d be stupid and boring and washed up and not care about my looks or health at 35.

Instead at 35, I find myself engaged in life, pro-active about my health, excited about my work and more willing to let go of all my hang-ups with every passing day.

Oprah has me convinced 50 is the Holy Grail for women, anyway. I’m still a babe in terms of that standard. I like that standard, it makes me feel I have all the time in the world to get everything I want to accomplish accomplished.

I feel more like Me, and more accepting of that, as time passes.

In short, I’ve never been happier and I’ve never felt better. I’m in my prime.

Post from: Blisstree

35th Birthday

McCain helped defeat the Fair Pay Act this week – which concerns your pay check and that guy in the cube next to you.

If you have the same education and training as the guy next to you, you’re making less money. Here’s a statistical fact: If you’re a childless woman you make 73 cents to his dollar. If you’re a mother you make only 60 cents to his dollar.

The Fair Pay Act would have allowed you to sue your company for discrimination for this inequality.

McCain says he doesn’t think our lack of pay equity this is “fair.” But he also doesn’t think you deserve to be allowed to do anything about it.

As reported on Foxnews.com McCain thinks you should go back to school because Equal training, education and experience isn’t going to cut it in his patriarchal world. Evidently he thinks women should have to have MORE training, education and experience than their male counterparts to make the same dollar. That or he’s confused about what the word “same” means.

McCain stated his opposition to the bill as he campaigned in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is worse among women than men. The Arizona senator said he was familiar with the disparity but that there are better ways to help women find better paying jobs.

“They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else,” McCain said. “And it’s hard for them to leave their families when they don’t have somebody to take care of them.

“It’s a vicious cycle that’s affecting women, particularly in a part of the country like this, where mining is the mainstay; traditionally, women have not gone into that line of work, to say the least,” he said.

Hey McCain – same means it compares a teacher to a teacher and a minor to a miner not a teacher to a miner. Maybe you should read the bills before you screw half the population.

Yeah, McCain I can see why you find lawsuits unpleasant. No one likes them.

I have to point out though – if you and your boys’ club were OFFERING to pay us THE SAME for the SAME work – we wouldn’t feel compelled to sue you.

Momsrising has a clever response. They’re asking women to send their resumes in just to prove that yeah – we went to the effort to getting those educations, training and experience and we’re still not being paid the SAME!

Image: www.thewashingtonnote.com

Post from: Blisstree

McCain Against Equal Pay

There is an article in the Wall Street Journal by Sue Shellenbarger about Pregnancy Discrimination explaining that claims are up and pregnant women are shocked to learn they have very few rights.

“Pregnancy-bias complaints recorded by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission surged 14% last year to 5,587, up 40% from a decade ago and the biggest annual increase in 13 years.

The agency also received 20,400 pregnancy-bias inquiries at its call center last year, the center’s first full year of operation; that doesn’t include thousands more walk-ins asking about the same topic at fair-employment offices.

“I thought we were protected,” said an advertising executive during a recent gathering of 100 working mothers. “Then I find out we can be fired while we’re pregnant, employers can refuse to hire us — what exactly are our rights?”

While employers can indeed fire, lay off or refuse to hire pregnant women, they can’t single them out for worse treatment.

Many hotline callers also don’t realize they aren’t entitled by federal law to paid childbirth leave, says Melissa Josephs of Women Employed, an advocacy group that runs a hotline,” the article states.

The Family Medical Leave Act only guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave and only if they have over 50 employees. Many women use their disability insurance and vacation days to keep getting a paycheck for 6-8 weeks.

Both times I was pregnant I experienced pregnancy discrimination. The second time I was fired at 8 months after repeated comments about my pregnancy being inconvenient to them and losing their training investment. My final firable infraction? Placing labels on a newsletter I wrote for them crooked. What I could do about it? Nothing.

‘”Employers can’t justify adverse actions by using stereotypes, either, such as “now that you’re pregnant, the best thing for you to do is go raise your kid,” says Elizabeth Grossman, an EEOC regional attorney,”‘ says the article.

Oh, you mean like when my boss told me that No I couldn’t work from home, even though he allowed one male editor to work from his San Francisco home and then explained when I quit that he respected my decision to stay home with my baby cause he believed that was best.

It was shocking to me too how few rights pregnant women have against discrimination. Perhaps you too have been thinking you have more rights than you do?

What action can we take? Join MomsRising.org and join the Mother’s Movement to end pregnancy discrimination and expand the Family Medical Leave Act.

Here’s MY family values - Stop Sacrificing MOM!

Post from: Blisstree

Stop Sacrificing Mom!

Post from: Blisstree

Family Medical Leave Act Petition

 

A full three-quarters of mothers are in the workforce, yet mothers are 79% less likely to be hired than non-mothers with equal resumes and job experiences. Single mothers make just 60 cents to a man’s dollar. 

Please donate today to make the MomsVote ‘08 campaign a reality:  https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2907      

I love the Moms Rising position because they are not going to endorse one candidate. They are going to campaign so that EVERY candidate, Republicans and Democrats, understand that American Moms are over being treated with such a lack of respect and appreciation. And so are our kids.

Impossible? I’ll tell you what’s impossible . . .

Women won the right to vote when only men were allowed to vote.

More flexible employment policy that allows more parents time with their children?

Since women make up half the voting population and fathers have a vested interest in a better working environment for the family as well, well I’d call that totally achievable.

Check out yesterday’s story over at Solo Mother. She asks a lot of very valid questions about why women didn’t even vote in the last election.

Post from: Blisstree

Let’s Rise Moms!