On May 4th, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 366, the Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act, by a vote of 416 - 9.  The Senate passed S. 250, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2005, unanimously on March 10th.

H.R. 366 and its Senate counterpart closely resemble the Perkins reauthorization proposals introduced during last year's Congress (see the September 2004 Insider for more details). A quick review of the key provisions in both bills is provided below.

While it is encouraging that many positive additions have been made to both House and Senate bills that will assist women in transition, Perkins funding is currently threatened. The Congressional Budget Resolution, passed April 28, contains cuts to domestic discretionary spending by $23 billion, or 5.9%, in 2006. Programs under this category include Perkins vocational education, adult basic education, WIA job training, and higher education. To put a cut of this magnitude in perspective, Perkins was funded in FY05 at $1.3 billion, and a cut of 5.9% would translate to a loss of $77 million.  Please see the Advocacy Tip of the Month to take action and prevent these cuts from being implemented.

The next step in the reauthorization process is the House-Senate conference, which could take place as early as June. The House and the Senate will first identify Congresspeople and Senators as "conferees." These negotiators will comprise the "conference committee," and will meet to hash out key differences between the two bills and agree upon a final version. Then, each chamber must vote to approve the "conference agreement" that the committee has produced. Finally, the legislation is sent to the President for approval or veto.

Women Work! will continue to advocate for provisions that support women's economic advancement in the conference process, and keep members informed of any new developments.

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The Senate bill is an improvement over current law, in a number of areas:

• A new category of individuals is defined, called "hard-to-serve populations," which includes displaced homemakers, single parents, single pregnant women and welfare recipients. Language throughout the bill strengthens the delivery of services to these individuals.
• A new provision is added allowing local areas to fund displaced homemaker programs in conjunction with programs operating in the area.
• New provisions added allowing States and local areas to use WIA dollars to calculate or commission a self-sufficiency standard.
• Statewide funds must be used to ensure that WIA activities are placing men and women in to jobs and/or training that lead to comparable pay; the State plan must outline the State's strategy with regard to this requirement.
• Core services may include exposure to high skill, high wage and nontraditional jobs.
• Requirement that information about supportive services -- childcare, child support, health care, food stamps, the EITC, and transportation -- must be presented in a format that is usable and understandable to the participant.

The outlook for WIA reauthorization is uncertain. The next step in the legislative process is a vote on the Senate floor. However, a letter dated May 17 from Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the HELP Committee and chief author of the bill, voiced the Department of Labor's strong opposition to the Senate bill. Secretary Chao urged Senator Enzi to adopt a number of Administration-backed "reforms," such as consolidating of funding streams, allowing faith-based organizations to discriminate against prospective employees on the basis of religion, and creating a long-term 100% placement goal for WIA participants. In the letter, Secretary Chao stated that the Administration would seek to offer amendments that would incorporate these "reforms" into the final Senate bill. Given the Administration's opposition to the Senate bill in its current form, and the vast differences between the House and Senate bills, it is unclear whether WIA will be reauthorize this congress.

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On April 19th women from across the country wore red to express their feelings about the inequality in the workforce. In Washington, D.C., a press conference was held on Capitol Hill to introduce two new pieces of legislation designed to combat wage discrimination and increase pay equity.

The Fair Pay Act is the first bill which aims to end wage discrimination against people who work in so called "women areas." It was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) in the Senate and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) in the House. This bill would force employers to pay men and women the same amount of money if the jobs are comparable even if the person is working in an area normally associated as a woman's job.

Some key provisions include:

• Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, race or national origin.
• Requires employers to provide equal pay for jobs that are comparable in skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
• Applies to each company individually and would prohibit companies from reducing other employees' wages to achieve pay equity.
• Requires public disclosure of employer job categories and their pay scales, without requiring specific information on individual employees.
• Allows payment of different wages under a seniority system, merit system, or system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production.
• Allows employees who allege discrimination in wage-setting based on sex, race or national origin to either file a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or go to court.

Bills Introduced to Raise the Minimum Wage

On May 18th the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 was introduced in congress by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representative George Miller (D-CA). The bill would increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three steps: to $5.85 sixty days after enactment, to $6.55 one year later and to $7.25 a year after that.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 was the first bill on minimum wage to be passed in an effort to set official rate standards. Since then the minimum wage has been increased numerous times when needed; however, it has remained unchanged for the past eight years. The value of the last wage increase in 1996 has been completely eroded by inflation. Today, the buying power of the minimum wage is approaching an all-time low.

source: Economic Policy Institute

Women would be the largest group of beneficiaries of a minimum wage increase. Over 60% of workers who would profit from a hike in the minimum wage are women, including many displaced homemakers and single mothers who tend to earn lower wages. An estimated 760,000 single parents with children under 18 would receive a direct raise, with more than 600,000 of these single moms. Single mothers make up 10.5% of all minimum wage workers, yet comprise 5.6% of the total workforce. Full-time workers earning minimum wage, who currently earn $10,700 annually, would see a near 50% increase in their annual earnings.

Over the past eight years, members of Congress have voted to raise their own pay seven times, yet have failed to raise the minimum wage.  The Senate bill (S. 1062) already has 31 cosponsors, while the House bill (H.R. 2429) has 100, all Democrats. The minimum wage issue is a highly partisan one, and unfortunately these bills are unlikely to receive the broad bipartisan support required for passage into law.  If your Representative or Senators are Republican, encourage them to cosponsor this badly needed increase in the minimum wage.