Scott Walker, whose eff-you-that's-why style of governing caused a shutdown of the Wisconsin legislature last year and a recall of himself this year, doesn't know when to take $.75 on the dollar for an answer.
Wisconsin's GOP-led legislature recently repealed a provision of 2009's Equal Pay Enforcement Act that increased legal access for employees bringing suits based on inequitable pay policies, and Walker signed the repeal into law on Thursday. The provision had allowed victims of workplace discrimination to file their cases in the state court system, a significantly less costly circuit than the federal court system.
The Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health has a good summary, or you can hear it explained by extremely affable cheesehead and State Rep. Mark Pocan:
Amanda Turkel at the Huffington Post has been trying for weeks to get somebody in the Wisconsin legislature on record as to the impetus behind repealing this bill, but no dice: niether Walker nor the bill's author is talking. Turkel notes that that Wisconsin business associations were pushing the bill: "Groups like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association all backed a repeal."
Women in Wisconsin earn $.75 an hour to a man's dollar, two cents below the national average, though Pocan argues that the number has been improving thanks to the Equal Pay Enforcement Act that Walker and the GOP legislature just defanged.
Walker is up for recall on June 5, though he's likely to survive the challenge. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, with whom Walker has been linked, has enough problems with women voters over contraception and other health care access issues, without adding equal pay to the list of things his party is doing to alienate the female electorate.
As a side note, was anybody in Wisconsin paying attention when they voted in 2010?
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