Obama: Pass Paycheck Fairness Act

WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- President Obama urged Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that would enhance the ability of women to claim equal pay for equal work.

"So at a time when we're in a make-or-break moment for the middle class, Congress has to step up and do its job," Obama said Monday in a statement during a teleconference on the Paycheck Fairness Act. "If Congress passes the Paycheck Fairness Act, women are going to have access to more tools to claim equal pay for equal work. If Congress doesn't act, then women are still going to have difficulty enforcing and pressing for this basic principle."

The Senate scheduled a procedural vote for Tuesday on the Paycheck Fairness Act. Republicans are expected to be unified against the bill, making it very difficult for Democrats to garner the 60 votes needed to end debate, The Hill said.

The bill more than a matter of fairness, Obama said.

"Women are the breadwinners for a lot of families and if they're making less than men do for the same work families are going to have to get by for less money for child care and tuition and rent," he said. "Small businesses have fewer customers, everybody suffers."

Women earn about 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, Obama said, and the figure is even is even lower for black women and Latinas.

Senate Democrats said the bill is a response to Republicans' "war on women." The GOP counters the bill could be more of a political ploy because Democrats have said equal-pay issues were solved with passage of the Lilly Ledbetter act that amended U.S. law so that the statute of limitations for unfair pay expires 180 days after receipt of each new discriminatory paycheck, allowing more flexibility for women to challenge unfair pay.

The new bill, among other things, would create federal grants to help women improve salary negotiation skills and would change the current law to protect women taking initial steps toward filing an unfair pay complaint.