Senate GOP blocks Democrats' equal wage bill

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill Tuesday that called for equal pay in the workplace. But President Barack Obama and his congressional allies aren't finished appealing to women on the No. 1 concern for all voters: the cash in their wallets on the heels of recession.

As expected, the pay equity bill failed along party lines, 52-47, short of the required 60- vote threshold. But the debate itself was aimed at putting Republicans on the defensive on yet another women's issue, this one overtly economic.

Unlike past taunts over access to contraception and abortion, Republicans this time didn't take the bait.

In Fort Worth, Texas, presumptive presidential hopeful Mitt Romney focused instead on unemployment among Hispanics.

"Of course Governor Romney supports pay equity for women," said spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. "In order to have pay equity, women need to have jobs, and they have been getting crushed in this anemic Obama economy."

The device for the choreographed showdown in Washington was a Senate debate over the "Paycheck Fairness Act," a measure that aims to strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act's protections against pay inequities based on gender.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), would require employers to prove differences in pay are based on qualifications, education and other "bona fides" not related to gender. Employers who violate sex discrimination laws would be liable for compensatory or punitive damages. The federal government would be exempt from punitive damages.

Proponents say the bill is the next step after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Obama signed into law in 2009. The law effectively overturned a Supreme Court decision that had limited workers' ability to sue over pay inequity.

Ledbetter said she didn't become aware of her own pay discrepancy until near the end of her 1979-1988 career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala.