The slogan "Equal Pay for Equal Work" was one of the cornerstone policies of the Women's Liberation Movement. It seemed like an obvious equality issue to most of us: if you do the same job, you should get the same pay, regardless of your gender.

The Equal Pay Act was passed in (I believe) 1963, but employers have found various ways to sabotage it. The most obvious, of course, being the process of renaming a position to something sounding more impressive (and earning higher pay) but being the same task as the lower paid position.

Hence there were secretaries and administrative assistants. Floor managers and sales clerks. Trucking supervisors and truck drivers. The men who shared the information about their pay and supported women who protested the inequality were deemed whistle-blowers and were subjected to retaliation.

I speak from personal knowledge. My husband at the time got busted down to trucking assistant for speaking up about the unequal pay (they didn't know we were married and we drove the same rigs on the same routes, only he was called a supervisor and was paid more).

Well, 47 years later, a full-time employed woman, on average, still makes about 75% of what a man comparably employed earns. There is legislation in the Senate, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would bring a long-overdue update to the Equal Pay Act.

Victims of gender-based discrimination in pay would receive greater recompense, employees would be protected from retaliation, and employers would be required to show that wage differentials are job-related and driven by the requirements of the business. What we have been waiting for, for a long time, baby.

The bill has no Republican co-sponsors.