Weekdays at 12noon on 770 AM: The Truth
 Michael Medved

The "Lilly Ledbetter" Lie

October 30, 2012 @ 9:50 am (Updated: 9:51 am - 10/30/12 )

In his desperate focus on female voters, President Obama not only cites an imaginary GOP "War on Women" but trumpets his own epic achievements-including the "Lilly Ledbetter Law" which supposedly guaranteed that women receive equal pay for equal work. The problem with this narrative is that this guarantee actually became law with President Kennedy's Equal Pay Act in 1963.

The Ledbetter Law merely expands the time to file lawsuits, helping attorneys more than women workers. Experts agree that remaining disparities with men have more to do with female priorities than outright discrimination-for instance, women are more likely to take breaks for child-rearing, and less likely to relocate for career advancement.

Meanwhile, female salaries and job opportunities have fallen even more sharply than men's under Barack Obama's miserably misguided economic policies—hardly a record of feminist achievement.

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Comments (30)


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  • FormerMarineSgt wrote...
    Interesting that you continue your anti-Obama at all cost diatribes...
    October 30, 2012 10:11 am
    It's interesting that you give the economic collapse no credit for the damage to women's pay, that you give it all to Obama. It's not surprising due to the blatantly partisan 'blame Obama for everything' methods that you copy from the national levels of the right wing hate 'collective'. Yeah - Obama's not great, but he's hardly the evil you blame him as.
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  • halfshaft wrote...
    Let me be first.......
    October 30, 2012 10:14 am
    Apparently, Kennedy's Equal Pay Act does NOT, in fact, guarantee equal pay, since, as Medved then points out, disparities still exist. And while I am not going to argue the liklihood of women taking more breaks for child-rearing or being less willing to relocate, (men are more likely to miss work due to prostate cancer, hangovers, and recreation-caused injuries), the fact remains that WHEN women are actually doing the same work, and meeting the same expectations as their male counterparts, there is NO valid reason that they should not be paid the same.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Halfshell - the JFK law is on the books.
    October 30, 2012 11:02 am
    "Equal pay for equal work". .. That's 2 gardeners being paid the same. Or 2 bank tellers. But it's NOT laundry workers being paid necessarily the same as trash collectors. ..... And it's wage jobs, not jobs or professions where incentive and time often yield more money. But, of course, in some professions such as real estate, women usually earn MORE than men. ..... and in union jobs with seniority as a consideration, it does NOT address disparities resulting from seniority.

    What's interesting is that were disparity due simply to discrimination, apparently LBJ, Carter, Clinton and Obama have does no better a job that their GOP counterparts over the past 50 years. ..... And how does a 'war on women' explain that ?

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  • Male Matters wrote...
    No valid reason
    October 30, 2012 11:22 am
    Re: "WHEN women are actually doing the same work, and meeting the same expectations as their male counterparts, there is NO valid reason that they should not be paid the same." Correct -- and women do receive equal pay in these circumstances. Often, though, women are in the same job and don't receive the same pay: Here's just one example of why on average even the most sophisticated, educated women earn less than men even in the exact same profession: “In 2011, 22% of male physicians and 44% of female physicians worked less than full time, up from 7% of men and 29% of women from Cejka’s 2005 survey.” http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/03/26/bil10326.htm Here's news for most people: "76% of Americans believe that men control more wealth than women. But a new survey of Federal Reserve Board data reveals that women actually control 51.3% of personal wealth in the United States." http://www.pbs.org/ttc/headlines_economics_philanthropy.html See "Will the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Help Women?" http://malemattersusa.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/will-the-ledbetter-fair-pay-act-help-women/
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  • logical open mind wrote...
    halfshaft-do you know that it is illegal to pay women less for the same work?
    October 30, 2012 7:03 pm
    laywers will sue and the women make a boat load. What the left talks about is apples to oranges.
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    War on Women?
    October 30, 2012 10:15 am
    I'm baffled as all get-out how the democrats have cornered the chick market. They're a whiny, mincing pack of girly men that women normally won't schtupp, but they'll vote for them every time.
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  • cigarfan wrote...
    Medved's Amnesia
    October 30, 2012 1:32 pm
    Medved writes above "President Obama not only cites an "imaginary war" on women" Maybe he should remember this MyNW article http://mynorthwest.com/103/2006691/Gaffeprone-candidates-hurt-GOPs-Senate-chances
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  • TheSymbolForBoron wrote...
    Imaginary?
    October 30, 2012 4:24 pm
    That's a good one. Google 'GOP war on women list'. Hundreds of current examples. These right-wingers spend half their time doing something and the other half trying to cover up what they just did.

    The war on women is real. The Supreme Court is at stake. We need to keep these religious neo-nuts away from the government. They are un-American.

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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Symbol
    October 30, 2012 8:19 pm
    Holy CRAP! I did what you said and Googled "War on Women". I was shocked. What used to be normally thought of as respectable resources appear to have taken to engaging in the same baseless caricature usage as many campaign managers (and posters on this blog). I'm now despondent that we are stuck in one massive election campaign for the rest of our lives.
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  • SeattleD wrote...
    My biggest concern
    October 30, 2012 6:31 pm
    is the Republicon obsession with rape.
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  • logical open mind wrote...
    seattleD my mom in her 80's will vote republican, does this mean that she is pro rape?
    October 30, 2012 7:06 pm
    drug damaged idiot!!
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  • SeattleD wrote...
    Did you get around to asking your mom if she's pro-rape?
    October 31, 2012 6:21 pm
    You got me curious.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    "D", the obsession is on the left.
    October 31, 2012 5:28 am
    Thousands of candidates make thousands of off the cuff comments every day on speeches or whatever. ... Most are heard, if at all, by their local audience. .... But the left searches and blares every republican misstatement of (occasionally craziness) and totes it as the voice of the entire GOP.

    By that twisted logic, does the entire Democratic Party 'stand up and cheer' for abortion based on Darcy Burner's stupidity a few months ago ?

    .

    Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm... judging from some of the 'hip' Obama commercials, maybe they do.

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  • SeattleD wrote...
    You people are so obsessed with rape
    October 31, 2012 6:27 pm
    you now refer to it as "the rape thing".
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  • SeattleNative wrote...
    The real "war on women"...
    October 31, 2012 10:37 am
    ...are this administration's and Federal Reserve policies that have greatly devalued the US dollar over the past four years. It has raised the cost of purchasing everything.
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Native
    October 31, 2012 3:01 pm
    I suppose you could have ANYTHING in the headline (The real "war on women" ....) with the ditty about fiscal policy and fed beneath it and it could fit.
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