The College Fix

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who testified in front of Congress on behalf of forced subsidization of birth control and was later called a slut by Rush Limbaugh, wrote an op-ed for CNN.com. In her column, she proposes a bunch of new federal laws to equalize pay between men and women:

For starters, we need to further close the pay gap by fulfilling the promise of equal pay for work of equal value. Entire employment sectors shouldn’t be paid less because they’re considered “women’s work.” Because so much of “women’s work” is paid at minimum wage, one way to begin to address this is to pass the Rebuild America Act, which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage and index the tipped minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.

Women and families also need paid sick days and paid leave. The United States remains the only country in the developed world that does not mandate paid sick leave, despite the cost benefits to businesses, workers and our larger economy. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, employers lose hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity when sick workers stay on the job, while workers who are forced to stay home without pay because of illness lose critical income. These costs of unpaid leave take a disproportionate toll on women, who are more likely to have care-giving responsibilities and be unable to take time off to care for family members when they fall ill.

Throughout her column, she mentions that “our generation” will be the one to end wage discrimination. But ultimately, Fluke’s activism isn’t really about changing hearts and minds. In her world, there are no solutions except government solutions, and everyone must convince the political class to force their views on everyone else.

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