V.P. Debate Transcript: Page 3

Oct. 5 --

SHAW: Time. The next question goes to you.

Gentlemen, this is the 21st century, yet on average an Americanworking woman in our great nation earns 75 cents for each dollarearned by a working male. What do you males propose to do about it?

LIEBERMAN: Well, it’s a good and important question. Obviously,in our time, fortunately, great advances have been made by womenachieving the kind of equality that they were too long denied. But,Bernie, your question is absolutely right. Women, actually the numberI have, receive 72 cents for every dollar a man receives in acomparable job.

Al Gore and I have issued an economic plan in which we’ve statedspecific goals for the future. And one of those goals is to eliminatethe pay gap between men and women. It’s unfair and it’s unacceptable.

And the first way we will do that is by supporting the Equal PayAct, which has been proposed in Congress, which gives women the rightto file legal actions against employers who are not treating themfairly and not paying them equally.

Secondly, we’re going to do everything we can using governmentalsupport of business agencies, such as the Small BusinessAdministration, to help women business owners have an opportunity toinvest and begin businesses and make larger incomes themselves.

And there are other civil rights and human rightslaws that I think can come to play here.

So, bottom line, this is an unfair and unacceptable situation.And even though as the economy has risen in the last eight years,America’s women have risen with it and received more income, untilwomen are receiving the same amount of pay for the same job they’redoing as a man receives, we’ve not achieved genuine equality in thiscountry. And Al Gore and I are committed to closing that gap andachieving that equality.

You know, in so many families, women are a significant breadearner or the only bread earner, so this cause affects not only thewomen, but families and the children as well.