Tuesday, the Senate proved two things: a majority of senators think women need more support in their quest to be paid equally with men, but that’s not enough to actually get them support in the face of a GOP that stubbornly stands in the way.

It may seem pretty tough to side with unequal pay for equal work, yet that’s where 47 senators stand. The biggest concern offered that they offered up after they blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act? That the bill would have led to an unnecessary and soul-crushing number of lawsuits against employers. But the country actually needs to see more lawsuits against the gender wage gap, not fewer.

Some feel that women are adequately protected from pay discrimination, since we have laws saying it’s illegal to pay women less than men for the same work, and therefore this Act was redundant. They should think again. Sen. Suzanne Collins was absolutely right when she told reporters after the vote, “We already have on the books the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which I did support.” But her claims that those laws “provide adequate protections” and “existing laws are adequate” don’t really stand up to scrutiny.

It is of course illegal to pay women less than men for the same work under current law. But that doesn’t mean the pay gap has gone away or that women have all the power they need to fight back against discrimination. Even after President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law, which gives women more time to file lawsuits against employers they suspect of discrimination, the wage gap has actually widened slightly

Author Bryce Covert

Read More http://www.forbes.com/sites/brycecovert/2012/06/06/republicans-are-wrong-we-need-more-equal-pay-litigation-not-less/

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