Drazkowski offers GOP’s fourth bill to repeal women’s pay equity act
Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has introduced another version of his bill to repeal the Pay Equity Act (PEA), a program started in the 1980s that ensures that women are paid a comparable wage to men in local government jobs. As of Thursday, when Drazkowski introduced his new bill, Republicans have authored four bills this session aimed at repealing the Pay Equity Act. Twenty-two Republicans in the House and Senate are sponsoring the legislation; 21 of the sponsors are men.
The original repeal of the PEA was contained in a broader bill authored by Drazkowski that repealed a number of local government mandates; a similar bill is pending in the Senate. Senate Republicans then offered a standalone bill to repeal fair pay laws, and Drazkowski’s bill (HF698) introduced on Thursday brings the total tally of bills to four.
Democrats blasted Republicans for attempting to repeal the law earlier this month. St. Paul Rep. Erin Murphy demanded that “Republicans stop trying to take steps backward,” while Rep. Kate Knuth of New Brighton noted that pay inequality persists.
“We are making progress in equality but despite the progress, women still only earn about 77 cents on the dollar of what men make,” she said. “They are still not earning an equal amount to men.”
Likewise, newspapers throughout the state have called the repeal a bad idea.
The Mankato Free Press wrote, “Paying women what they deserve to be paid is not only ethical, but it’s part of what Minnesotans mean when they refer to the quality of life here. We came up with a good law and should keep it.”
The Bemidji Pioneer wrote:
Republicans, who lead both the Minnesota House and Senate, may have been overzealous in their attempt to trim government. Under the mantle of removing mandates from local governments, a Republican effort is underfoot to repeal the 1984 law that brings gender balance to public employment.
In other words, the bill would return to a situation where a man could be paid more than a woman for the comparable amount of work in a public job.
And the Winona Daily News was harsh in its criticism of the bill in general and of Drazkowski in particular:
Drazkowski would try to have us believe that gender discrimination, especially in the public sector, isn’t a problem. In other words, government jobs pay the same no matter the gender. Besides, federal law takes care of the issue, so state law is redundant. To believe Minnesota doesn’t need the law is at best naïve and, at worst, sexist.
25 Comments
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 4:14 pm
When men dislkike women so much, they go on the rampage that women should not mak equitable pay ina Public Job, EVEN should they have MORE Education!
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 4:53 pm
Between this and the attacks on women’s choice and health, it’s time for a little Lysistrata, folks.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 6:39 pm
Equality for women? Sounds like a communist conspiracy to me. Or at least very un-Christlike.
Praise Jebus, God hates justice, Amen.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 6:43 pm
If you people were certain that this is about attacks on women because they are women, you’d all be supporting Sarah Palin for president. So why aren’t you?
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Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 7:23 pm
“If you people were certain that this is about attacks on women because they are women, you’d all be supporting Sarah Palin for president. So why aren’t you?”
Becaaauuuse she’s a nitwit?
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 7:32 pm
This is much ado about nothing. If what Representative Knuth says is true (and I doubt it base on her track record) the law is not very effective anyway. I think the problem the advocates of the bills are trying to address is the bureaucratic costs and overhead for an unneeded law (equal pay for equal work has been federal law since 1963).
I think the DFL knows they hold the losing position on most legislation of substance and are latching onto this to make political hay.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 8:29 pm
Yes Dennis, That’s why we always supported Alan Keyes. Because he was black. It’s that simple.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 8:43 pm
When Palin is your president, I’ll do everything I can to ensure that her salary is the same as Obama’s was.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 8:55 pm
She wouldn’t take the pay cut, and even if she is elected, she would resign half way through her term.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
Sarah “women can pay for their own rape evidence collection kits” Palin’s politics are in NO way pro-woman. Woman-positive politics mean the right to choose, equal wages for equal work, etc.
I support pro-woman politics. That does not mean I support every woman in politics because some of them espouse positions that are extremely anti-woman.
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 10:18 pm
I thought they were supposed to be dealing with the deficit. Why are the Republicans spending all their time trying to turn the clock back to barefoot and pregnant?
Comment posted February 24, 2011 @ 11:29 pm
Sarah Palin is nothing more than an IDIOT who managed to get lucky and strike it rich. Nothing more!
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 7:43 am
With the rise of a possible Palin presidency, it’s become apparent that the woman’s worst enemies are other women and gay men.
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 7:46 am
A quick check of his campaign site shows that Rep. Drazkowski has a daughter who is a college student. Her tuition bills are the same as her male classmates, yet she will earn $1.2 million dollars LESS than those young men over her lifetime.
I wonder what she thinks of his proposals?
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 8:48 am
Bat G – A possible Palin presidency comes drippingly, trippingly off the tongue. Like drool. If only Michelle were as cute as Sarah. Still on the Planet of the Apes along with Snazzy Drazy.
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 2:46 pm
Watching Republicans legislate on matters where their knowledge is as weak as their opinions are strong, I guess this is what happens when someone tries to go right from talking points to legislation.
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 3:15 pm
If they really want to show true leadership you need to do it by example. All legislatures accross the board should take a 10% paycut. (National as Well)
By taking this permanent paycut they would be examples to the rest of us to tighten our belts.
The cost of monitoring the pay equality speaks for itself that its needed. If there was no inequality in pay there would be no cost. I know many think things are not that simple but really they are.
A possible Palin presidency. Sorry not possible. To be president you have to be smart and articulate. If your are not so smart you have to keep your mouth shut and Palin is neither. Loud and stupid has always been and always will be just that. Loud and stupid.
Comment posted February 25, 2011 @ 3:58 pm
If it does not work, then stop doing it. Like conservative fiscal policies, for example.
Comment posted February 26, 2011 @ 6:05 pm
What you call “conservative fiscal policies” is actually capitalism. So you’re an anti-capitalist?
Comment posted February 27, 2011 @ 7:34 am
“Conservative fiscal policies” and capitalism are two different things.
Comment posted February 28, 2011 @ 3:21 pm
Dennis: Gay men are women’s enemies??? Are you saying that because gay men don’t want to have sex with women, that they hate them?
No, that would be the Republican position: they don’t want to have sex with gay men (or many of them don’t), so they hate them.
Comment posted March 1, 2011 @ 1:03 pm
Dennis,
I can’t believe I am responding to your ridiculous troll posts. You seem to have left hundreds of them all over this site. Your days are kind of slow, eh? Why aren’t you out earning the big bucks to prop up us evil “librulls”?
Anyway, Palin is not electable because she is an idiot. She is not smart. She has no experience, other than walking away from her job as governor. Now she operates as a sort of snake oil sales woman, pushing her faulty wares on the people of the U.S.
The men who like her want to sleep with her; the women who like her want to look like her. Our country is vapid and celebrity-crazed. We celebrate the anti-intellectual.
While she fits perfectly into our dumbed-down pop culture, she is not fit to lead the country, because, as I stated earlier, she is an idiot.
Sidenote: Equal Pay for Equal Work. It’s not that complicated.
Comment posted March 1, 2011 @ 11:08 pm
I have to ask- how is it that people like this get elected in Minnesota? You already had Bachmann and now this? If Minnesota keeps this up, the rest of the country will start thinking even worse about the state.
Pingback posted April 25, 2011 @ 1:04 am
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