So That Everybody Gets a Fair Shot, How About a "Workweek and Occupational Fatality Fairness Act"

In a recent CD post, I argued that we could close the gender-pay gap by closing the gender-hours gap.  Another way to close the gender-pay gap would be to close the "occupational fatality-gap."  For as long as the BLS has been keeping records, females have been significantly under-represented in occupational fatalities, by a ratio of about one female death on the job per 12 male deaths in most years.  Men are disproportionately represented in higher-paying, but higher-risk occupations like mining, fishing, farming and construction.    

With that in mind, I had  a little editing fun here with a recent White House press release titled "Fighting for Equal Pay Workweeks and Occupational Fatalities and the Paycheck Workweek and Occupational Fatality Fairness Act:"

"Today, the President continues to advocate for passage of the Paycheck Workweek and Occupational Fatality Fairness Act, a comprehensive bill that strengthens the Equal Pay Workweek and Occupational Death Act of 1963, which made it illegal for employers to pay wages to men and women to work an unequal number of hours per week, or suffer from differences in occupational deaths who perform substantially equal work.   The Paycheck Workweek and Occupational Fatality Fairness Act is commonsense legislation that, among other things, would achieve the following:

• Better align key Equal Pay Workweek and Occupational Death Act defenses with those in Title VII.
• Bring remedies available under the Equal Pay Workweek and Occupational Death Act into line with remedies available under other civil rights laws. 
• Make the requirements for class action lawsuits under the Equal Pay Workweek and Occupational Death Act match those of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.    
• Protect employees who share their own salary workweek or occupational injury or fatality information at work from retaliation by an employer.

The existing legal tools available to remedy pay workweek and occupational fatality discrimination differences by gender are not enough, so Congress needs to pass the Paycheck Workweek and Occupational Fatality Fairness Act now.

From the beginning of his administration, President Obama has worked to ensure that women are paid fairly for their work work exactly the same number of hours per week as men and are exposed to the same work-related fatalities as men. The President is committed to securing an equal pay for equal work workweek and equal occupation death rate for men and women because it’s essential that we build an economy where everyone gets a fair shot at working an equal number of hours regardless of gender and gets an equal chance of getting seriously injured or killed on the job.  American families and the health of our nation’s economy depend on it."