The Senate yesterday passed an appropriations bill that included an amendment sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to require the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reinstate the collection of data on women workers. The amendment, co-sponsored by Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), was attached to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, funding these departments for 2006.
“Ensuring equal pay for equal work is a complex problem, and we need data like this to help understand it and ultimately overcome it,” said Senator Clinton. “Without this data, it will be significantly more difficult for researchers to analyze our country’s progress towards making sure women and men are paid the same for doing the same job.”
The bill now moves to conference committee, where the House and Senate versions will be aligned; the BLS requirement was not part of the House version.
