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Senator calls for passage of legislation to close gender pay gap

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today joined fellow Senators in voting to advance the Paycheck Fairness Act in the Senate— legislation to help close the wage gap between women and men working equivalent jobs, costing women and their families $434,000 over their careers.

“Ensuring women get equal pay for equal work is a battle my mom had to fight, and I’m determined not to leave that fight for my daughters to finish,” McCaskill said. “When a working woman—who is often the sole breadwinner or a significant contributor to her household—can still be paid less than her male colleagues for the same work, it does a great disservice to families working hard to make ends meet and is simply an unfair burden for American families.”

McCaskill’s support for the Paycheck Fairness Act follows her vote for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provided access to courts for women able to document cases of past pay discrimination, and continues a long career of advocacy on equality and discrimination issues which began as a prosecutor in Kansas City, Mo.

Women make up nearly half of Missouri’s workforce, but earn only 74 cents for every dollar paid to men in the state.

The Paycheck Fairness Act builds on the promise of the Equal Pay Act, passed more than 50 years ago on June 10, 1963. It helps close the pay gap by empowering women to negotiate for equal pay, closing loopholes courts have created in the law, creating strong incentives for employers to obey the laws and strengthening federal outreach and enforcement efforts. The bill shifts the burden of proof from a woman to her employer, and protects employees from retaliation when they share with each other how much they make.