Senate Republicans rejected a measure written by Senate Democrats aimed at eliminating differences in pay between women and men, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The Paycheck Fairness Act fell short 52-40, failing to clear a 60-vote procedural vote benchmark on Monday evening, the third time the measure has failed since spring of 2012.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with each other, impose harsher penalties for pay discrimination based on gender and require employers to be able to show that wage gaps between men and women are based on other factors, The Huffington Post reported.
The bill needed 60 votes to beat a Republican filibuster and advance to a final vote on passage, but it fell short Monday by a vote of 52 to 40. Senate Democrats have brought the bill to the floor four times since 2011, and each time, Republicans have rejected it.
"The wage gap not only hurts our families, it hurts the economy," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) before the vote. "If it were reversed, I'd be standing here fighting for the men. It's not right."
Republicans say they don't support the bill because they believe it would discourage employers from hiring women, out of a fear of lawsuits. Republicans have accused Democrats of staging a "show vote" on the bill, knowing it won't pass in an election year.
"At a time when the Obama economy is already hurting women so much, this legislation would double down on job loss, all while lining the pockets of trial lawyers," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said before the last vote on the bill in April. "In other words, it's just another Democratic idea that threatens to hurt the very people that it claims to help."
Women working full-time in the U.S. on average earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, according to the Census Bureau. A small portion of that gap, economists say, is due to employers paying women less than men for the same work.
