The Senate GOP has closed ranks against the Paycheck Fairness Act and blocked it for the time being. As the mid-term elections draw near, it may be that the GOP wants to prevent the Democrats from gaining any traction that might reverse their upcoming electoral defeat.
What is clear is that the party voted with one accord to block the bill. The bill will remove employer barriers to income secrecy that prevent employees from letting others know what they earn. Supporters of the bill claim that in places of employment where employees freely share information with one another on their salary and compensation, the pay disparities are less pronounced.
Paycheck Fairness will also seek to eliminate the income disparity among women that has them earning 77% of when men earn. It is not clear if the income disparity factors in actual years of experience or just similar ages. In some cases, women have quit the work force to raise children and then returned after several years. That would account for some of the disparity.
The GOP counters that the problem is not as pronounced as critics argue and that there already exist laws barring work place discrimination.
Perhaps a better argument would be for the GOP to demand President Obama explain how Paycheck Fairness would compel him to pay female staff at the White House a fair income compared to men. It has already been revealed that the Obama Administration has a greater income disparity among women than the 77% figure tossed about as the national average.