Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Washington, D.C. – Today on Equal Pay Day, Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District highlighted the important need to close the wage gap between women and men.  Equal Pay Day represents the date in the current year through which women must work to match what men earned in the previous year.

“With women still only earning 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, it is critical to New Mexico families that we continue to advocate for equal pay for equal work,” Congressman Luján said.  “This issue does not just impact women, as families increasingly rely on women’s wages to make ends meet.”

In January 2009, Luján was proud to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, one of the first bills signed into law by President Obama that restored the right of women to challenge unfair pay in court.

“The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was an important step to fight pay discrimination in the workplace, but it must not be the end of our efforts,” added Luján.  “Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act is needed to strengthen the Equal Pay Act and provide effective remedies to women who are not being paid equal wages for doing equal work.  Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress have stood in the way of passing this important legislation.”

“With Equal Pay Day falling on Tax Day this year, I remain committed to not only fighting for equal pay for women, but for fairness in the tax code that will promote a strong middle class and encourage economic growth.  Instead of providing more tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, we need tax reform that requires everyone to pay their fair share and ensures that the wealthiest among us cannot use tax loopholes to pay less than working families,” Luján concluded.

Luján is a cosponsor of legislation to enact the “Buffet Rule,” which ensures that those making over $1 million a year will not pay lower taxes than middle-class Americans.

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