WH 'Roughed Up By Its Own Pay Equity Rhetoric' (Video)

It’s an election year, so Democrats are resurrecting the Republican War on Women rhetoric they think worked so well for them in 2012. 

But even as they push “Equal Pay Day” with their #GOPPayGap hashtag on Twitter, today, the White House led effort is being “roughed up by its own pay equity rhetoric,” according to CBS News’ Major Garrett.

“The White House is getting, as you indicated Norah, roughed up by its own pay equity rhetoric,” Garrett reported, Tuesday morning. “In an analysis of White House salaries, which nobody here disputes,  shows that the median income of female staffers is 88 percent of that of male staffers.”

“Now the study also showed that men and women with the same White House jobs earn exactly the same salary. Now the White House said its gender pay gap is tied to job experience, education, and hours worked among other factors. This matters because those explanations, according to the Labor Department, explain a good deal of the gender pay gap nationally. The big difference in these stories: When President Obama discusses this issue nationally, he doesn’t mention those other work variables, only the broad figure, that 77 cents for every dollar is what women earn compared to men,”  Garrett explained.

“When the factors that the White House used to defend its gender pay gap are used nationally, the Labor Department says the difference in median wages between men and women shrinks to about 5 cents to 7 cents on the dollar.”

Despite the White House being hoisted on its own petard on this issue, Democrats have dubbed today, “Equal Pay Day” in order to push  the “Paycheck Fairness Act.”  Republicans say the proposal is “misleadingly named” and a “desperate political ploy.”

…Democrats are cynically betting that Americans aren’t smart enough to know better. They’re forgetting the millions of women who belong to the Republican Party who will speak out. They’re missing the fathers, husbands, and sons who believe that women deserve real solutions.

The “Paycheck Fairness Act” doesn’t provide paycheck fairness for women. In fact, it will cut flexibility in the work place for working moms and end merit pay that rewards good work–the very things that are important to us

There is already a law  that prohibits discrimination based on a worker’s sex–it’s called the Equal Pay Act, and it’s been law since 1963. 

The Heritage foundation’s labor expert James Sherk explained why mandating “paycheck fairness” is a bad idea. He says the proposal is more about inviting lawsuits than anything else.

“…the PFA allows employees to sue businesses that pay different workers different wages–even if those differences have nothing to do with the employees’ sex. These lawsuits can be brought for unlimited damages, giving a windfall to trial lawyers.

In the end, such a mandate would end up hurting all workers, because once an employee can’t get a performance based raise, everyone with the same job title will have to make the same exact salary. This would lead to lower pay for everyone – men and women alike.

Companies should be allowed to reward good performance without risking a lawsuit. Punishing companies that do not adopt uniform pay scales would cut the wages of both men and women.