But what it means is subject to debate. We're not saying government should evaluate all jobs and decide who gets paid what. But within companies or enterprises, jobs are evaluated all the time. We just want to take the discrimination out of the pay scales. And since women are paid less now, they'll have fewer savings and smaller pensions than men later on, says the labor organization.
Organized labor says the disparity is even wider for African-American women and Latina women.
Opposing views Not so fast, say observers at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington-based Employment Policy Foundation. In the authors' view, the gender pay gap has been exaggerated. It's essentially comparing apples and kumquats. It's been pushed by special interest groups that believe government should be setting the wage law for the rest of us. We think the free market does a pretty good job of setting wages.