Ocasio-Cortez on Paycheck Fairness Act: It Is Time to Pay People What They Are Worth

OCASIO-CORTEZ: "“We implicitly recognize, as women, that the pay gap and the wage gap is an injustice that persists through secrecy and it's an injustice that persist to the present day. And the only way that we can combat that is through organizing and our personal action ourselves. So I'm so happy that the Paycheck Fairness Act addresses, among many things, two very critical ones. One is that we cannot ask for salary history and pay people depending on their salary history anymore. Because it is time that we pay people what they are worth and not how little they are desperate enough to accept. It is time to pay people what they are worth and it has nothing to do with their history, it has everything to do with what they are worth today. And the second thing is that it makes it legal and it makes it totally permissible to share your salary information at your workplace. And that's incredibly important because for all those who say that the wage gap does not exist and that it's a myth, then t hey should have no problem proving that by allowing the disclosure of salaries in the workplace. So I'm so thankful to just be able to co-sponsor and be that backup in this legislation that so many people have worked so hard to bring today."