The Ad:
Title: “Equal Pay”
From: Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate
Type: Attack ad on Republican presidential candidate John McCain
Date: Sept. 16, 2008
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2G7ZDgVSvM
What it Says:
“Today, many women work to help support their families, but are paid just seventy-seven cents to the dollar a man makes. It’s one more thing John McCain doesn’t get about our economy. He opposed a law to guarantee women equal pay for equal work, calling it too great a burden on business. McCain explains away the wage gap, saying women just need more ‘education and training.’ A burden on business? How about the burden on our families?”
The Facts:
The ad opens with dark, shaded images of McCain and President George W. Bush in the background. A woman delivers the narration:
- “Many women work to help support their families, but are paid just seventy-seven cents to the dollar a man makes.”
That’s accurate, according to a 2004 U.S. Census bureau report. It reports that in situations where they did the same work, women earned around 77 percent of what men did.
- “He opposed a law to guarantee women equal pay for equal work, calling it too great a burden on business.”
That statement is partially misleading. At the heart of the proposed law was Lilly Ledbetter, a Goodyear worker who sued her company for pay discrimination after 19 years at the company. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled against her because she hadn’t sued within 180 days of when her pay was set.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was meant to extend the deadline for filing such suits. The House had approved the measure. But on April 23, 2008, Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the measure, essentially killing it. The measure itself has never come up for a vote.
McCain wasn’t there for the vote. But he did oppose the law, something he made very clear in that day’s campaign speeches. And the burden on business, while not a direct quote, is a reason he gave for his opposition.
But a look at the text of the proposed law shows that saying it would “guarantee” equal pay isn’t completely accurate. The measure would have taken away that 180-day time limit on filing pay discrimination suits. That would make it easier for women to sue for equal pay. But that does not guarantee that they would win the lawsuit and get equal pay.
The ad closes with a look at what McCain said after the law was voted down:
- “McCain explains away the wage gap, saying women just need more education and training.”
The ad lacks the context of McCain’s explanation. The ad cites as its source an Associated Press story reporting McCain’s speech in rural Kentucky. There, he said he understood the wage gap but did not think lawsuits were the way to resolve them. Women, McCain said, “need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else.” He added, “It’s a vicious cycle that’s affecting women, particularly in a part of the country like this, where mining is the mainstay; traditionally, women have not gone into that line of work, to say the least.”
On the whole, the ad lacks some context. But it accurately reflects McCain’s record on the equal pay issue overall.
For Democracywise, Zachary Kineke.
(Zachary Kineke is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and political science.)
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