The Paycheck Fairness Act is the next logical step towards achieving equal pay for women. The Paycheck Fairness Act updates and strengthens the Equal Pay Act, closing loop holes and improving the law’s effectiveness. The Paycheck Fairness Act is also good for business. Many employers recognize that equal pay helps with competitiveness, worker retention and productivity. Despite this fact, there are still some who argue that equal pay for women would be a burden on business.

Business owners like Debra Ruh disagree. Ms. Ruh owns TecAccess in Rockville, Virginia. TecAccess is a consulting firm that helps companies update their web and information technology systems to reach and better serve people with disabilities. Ms. Ruh said it would never occur to her to pay a woman less than a man, because she would lose out on a creative, innovative and loyal workforce. “If we can’t pay women equal pay, it causes all other minority groups to become more and more disenfranchised.”

Forty-six years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women still make less than men for doing the same work. On average, women lose $9,575 per year and up to $434,000 over a career. However the impact does not end here; the wage gap follows women into retirement because they have earned less during their employment, therefore there is less for Social Security benefits, less for retirement accounts and less savings overall.

Progress has been made. The first bill signed into law this year by President Obama was a pay equity bill - the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act simply restored the law to the way it was before a May 2007 Supreme Court decision. The Ledbetter bill was an important step towards equal pay, but more work is needed to eliminate the wage gap.

Legislation is necessary to strengthen equal pay laws and to require the federal government to be more proactive in preventing and battling wage discrimination. The Paycheck Fairness Act prohibits retaliation against workers who inquire about employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages.

Heather Jernberg, a partner at the Boreas Group in Denver, Colorado and BPW member (Bozeman BPW), thinks this crucial for women to succeed. “By prohibiting employer retaliation, women and men will be able to research wages without fear of recrimination at their company. I have worked for organizations where my salary was published in the local paper, and companies where I risked being fired for discussing my paycheck with coworkers. I prefer full disclosure of wage information.”

Eliminating the wage gap is good for families and for business, especially during a recession when many two-income families come to rely on one income; it is even more critical that the wages are equitable. Rosa Ashby, a co-owner of the Royal Gorge Route Railroad in Canon City, Colorado has over 150 employees including conductors, dishwashers and management. Ashby: “Pay is accorded to these employees by skills and experience, not whether a person is male or female.”

Businesses have nothing to fear from Paycheck Fairness Act. If a company does not discriminate, if it abides by existing civil rights laws then it should not fear the support and passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act. Debra, Jennifer and Rosa are business women who understand this.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is needed because the gender wage gap persists. Solving the wage gap takes action on the part of employers, employees and legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act to create a level playing field.