Norton Gets One Equal Rights Bill Passed and Files Another

August 1, 2008

Washington, DC - As Congress went for August recess, after passing an equal rights bill, which Norton championed, Norton today filed another equity bill to give a group of employees at the Government Accounting Office (GAO) the same rights as others. Norton was an original co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, passed yesterday evening, updating the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which Norton enforced as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), providing equal pay for men and women. The GAO bill filed today will give GAO employees the right to have their complaints heard by a third party independent of the agency, just as for other legislative branches and federal administration agencies. Norton introduced the Legislative Branch Personnel Act because of hearings that raised "very troubling issues of equal treatment" at GAO after an independent consultant group confirmed that there are many race-based disparities in ratings, promotions and other employment practices between African Americans and Caucasians at GAO that cannot otherwise be explained.

When Norton chaired the EEOC during the Carter Administration, she worked to have the EPA transferred from the Labor Dept. to the EEOC. She said that the 45-year-old Equity Pay Act needed updating even when she was at the EEOC. "It has been a special experience enforcing a law and seeing shortcomings, then becoming a member of Congress, becoming able to do something about them," she said. The EPA lacked important provisions that today are routine in other equal rights legislation, added by the Paycheck Fairness Act. Among them are provisions for damages; a section providing a second cause of action if an employee is retaliated against by the employer for filing an anti-discrimination complaint; and a provision to address common complaints about employer rules forbidding employees to discuss wages with co-workers, enabling them, of course, to make comparisons.