“A new ad from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker features his lieutenant governor celebrating his apparent support for equal pay for women. In the ad, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch says she finds it “insulting” that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke has said that Walker is “trying to make it harder for women to earn equal pay.” She goes on to claim that, “Under Scott Walker, workplace discrimination will always be illegal for any reason.”
So the thing here is that, in addition to federal laws, gender-based employment discrimination is illegal in Wisconsin under the state’s Fair Employment Act. But in 2012, Walker quietly repealed the state’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which gave the existing equal pay law more teeth. As we’ve seen in the persistence of the pay gap — currently at 75 cents in Wisconsin — despite progress on equal pay laws, legislation banning discrimination often isn’t enough to fix the problem. As the Huffington Post’s Amanda Terkel reported at the time, the Equal Pay Enforcement Act, among its other provisions, allowed women to “plead their cases in the less costly, more accessible state circuit court system, rather than just in federal court.” Put simply, this made it easier for women to earn equal pay.“* Ana Kasparian (The Point with Ana Kasparian), John Iadarola (TYT University) and Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show) break it down.
*Read more here from Katie McDonough / Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/28/scott_walker_knows_the_best_way_to_support_equal_pay_is_to_repeal_equal_pay_laws/