In South Carolina, Hillary Clinton will talk about her support of equal pay policies. Equal pay for women in the workplace seems like a no brainer – unless you’re a Republican running for President.

From Marco Rubio, to Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul, Republican contenders have repeatedly opposed a woman’s right to equal pay. In fact, Jeb Bush hadn’t even heard of the Paycheck Fairness Act. Republican politicians like to talk about civil liberties and individual rights, but only when it is convenient for them – and certainly not when it comes to the rights of women in the workplace.

Every American, regardless of gender, should be able to earn an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. While Republicans stand in the way of progress, Hillary Clinton has consistently fought to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to live the American Dream.

Hillary Clinton on Equal Pay 

Hillary Clinton on equal pay: “This is not just a women’s issue, this is a family issue, a fairness issue.” Speaking in North Carolina, Sec. Clinton said the fact that women “still get paid less than men for the same work costs those women and their families thousands of dollars every year. Imagine what a working mom could do with the money she is owed, the better home she could rent or even buy? This is not just a women’s issue, this is a family issue, a fairness issue.” [Ballot Box, The Hill, 10/25/14]

Hillary Clinton: “It’s time to have wage equality once and for all.” “Central to her message was pay equity for women. Clinton singled out Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette for her advocacy during the Academy Awards telecast Sunday night. ‘We all cheered at Patricia Arquette’s speech at the Oscars because she’s right,’ Clinton said. ‘It’s time to have wage equality once and for all.’” [Washington Post, 2/24/15]

Fighting for Equal Pay at Home and Abroad

Hillary Clinton went to China and spoke forcefully about wage disparities. It was there that she famously said, “women’s rights are human rights.” Clinton pointed to wage inequities as a problem that needed to be solved: “Families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives. As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world – as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes – the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.” [Clinton remarks, 9/5/95]

Hillary Clinton worked with business leaders and working women to address equal pay. In 1999, President Clinton and the First Lady held a roundtable discussion “with working women and business leaders to discuss the need to ensure that every working American receives equal pay and equal opportunity.” [White House media advisory, 4/7/99; Remarks of the President and First Lady at Roundtable on Equal Pay, 4/7/99]

Pushing Equal Pay Legislation

Hillary Clinton championed the fight for paycheck fairness. In the Senate, Hillary Clinton introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in 2005 and 2007 to help prevent and eliminate paycheck discrimination. Senator Clinton co-sponsored the legislation in 2003 and 2001 as well. [S.77, 1/22/01; S. 76, 1/7/03, S. 841, 4/19/05; S. 766, 3/6/07; Senator Clinton floor remarks, 3/6/07; Executive Order, 4/8/14]

Hillary Clinton was an original co-sponsor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and fought to expand workers’ rights to take pay discrimination issues to court. [S. 181, 1/8/09; S. 1843, 7/20/07]

Bypassing Congress to Fight for Pay Equity

Hillary Clinton worked directly with young women to help them be paid equally for equal work. Senator Clinton published a guide for young professional women on getting equal pay, titled, “Know How to Ask & Know Your Rights: A Pay Equity Guide on How to Help Yourself in the Workplace.” [Senator Clinton Press Release, 3/23/06]

Hillary Clinton published a guide for young professional women on getting equal pay. The guide, titled, “Know How to Ask & Know Your Rights: A Pay Equity Guide on How to Help Yourself in the Workplace,” gave tips for negotiating a fair wage and informed women about what to do if they suspected they were victims of wage discrimination. [“Know What to Ask & Know Your Rights: A Pay Equity Guide on How to Help Yourself in the Workplace,” Senator Clinton, 3/23/06]

Pushing the Bush Administration to Enforce Equal Pay Laws

Hillary Clinton pushed the Bush Administration to enforce equal pay laws by calling for an investigation into their enforcement of equal pay. The investigation found that the Bush Administration was not monitoring the enforcement of pay equity laws. [Senator Clinton press release, 4/24/07]

The GOP on Equal Pay

Scott Walker

Scott Walker repealed a Wisconsin law allowing victims of pay discrimination to seek damages in state courts. “On Thursday, with little fanfare, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed a bill repealing the state’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which allowed victims of workplace discrimination to seek damages in state courts. […] The Equal Pay law wasn’t just about women—it also offered protection from discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors. But it was enacted largely in response to a large gap between men and women’s compensation, one that was worse than average in Wisconsin—in 2009 the state ranked 36th in the country in terms of workplace gender parity.” [Daily Beast, 4/7/12]

Scott Walker signed legislation that put limits on attorney’s fees victims could recover in equal pay lawsuits. According to the International Business Times, “The law approved by Walker removes the ability for victims of wage discrimination to go to court for compensatory and punitive damages, although they still have the ability to seek back pay. Hynes noted that Walker previously signed legislation that puts a limit on the amount of attorney’s fees victims can recover in lawsuits, making it even less likely that wronged employees will take their cases to court.” [International Business Times, 4/9/12]

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio repeatedly voted against equal pay legislation, calling it “a welfare plan for trial lawyers.” “Republicans, seeking to mitigate the fallout after recent debates over women’s health have cast them in a harsh light among female voters, were careful not to be seen as rooting against the cause of equal pay. Instead, they decried the bill as a political stunt. ‘It’s pure election-year politics,’ said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). ‘This bill reads more to me like some sort of a welfare plan for trial lawyers.’” [Talking Points Memo, 6/5/12; Senate roll call vote 115, 6/5/12; Senate roll call vote 103, 4/9/14; Senate roll call vote 260, 9/10/14; Senate roll call vote 262, 9/15/14]

Marco Rubio claimed the push for fair pay legislation was “about scoring political points.” In an official press release, Rubio said, “Once again, Senate Democrats have wasted the American people’s time by holding yet another show vote that proves any sense of urgency they have is about scoring political points instead of solving the problems that threaten America’s future.” [Official Marco Rubio Press Release, 6/5/12]

Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush: “What’s the Paycheck Fairness Act?” According to The Hill, “‘What’s the Paycheck Fairness Act?’ Bush asked, in an exchange captured by the liberal opposition research outfit American Bridge. Once the man he was speaking with defined it as a bill that would ensure that women get ‘equal pay for equal work,’ Bush took issue with his phrasing. ‘Equal pay for the same work, not for equal work — I think that’s the problem with it. I think there’s a definition issue,’ he said, before declining to say whether or not he thought Land should support the legislation.” [The Hill, 10/15/14]

Chris Christie

Chris Christie vetoed “two sensible reforms that would help prevent women from getting cheated in their paychecks.” “Gov. Chris Christie says he’s committed to pay equity for women. So why, for the second time, has he killed two sensible reforms that would help prevent women from getting cheated in their paychecks? […] One bill, called the Wage Transparency Act, Christie outright vetoed. It would have required state contractors to make their gender, race and wage information publicly available, as federal contractors will soon have to. Christie argues the state’s prevailing wage law already requires wage reporting. But it doesn’t cover all public contractors. And we have yet to see any evidence that doing so would be too ‘costly and burdensome’ for business, as Christie claims. Weinberg’s other bill, the Unfair Wage Recovery Act, Christie’s conditional veto has rendered toothless. Under this reform, a woman who suddenly discovers she is being paid less than male co-workers would have had the opportunity to seek all the back pay she is owed, without hitting an arbitrary statute of limitations.” [Star-Ledger, 8/14/14]

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act three times. According to the Congressional record, Ted Cruz cast three “nay” votes against the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that would strengthen protections for victims of wage discrimination on the basis of sex. [S. 2199, 4/1/14; Senate roll call vote 103, 4/9/14; Senate roll call vote 260, 9/10/14; Senate roll call vote 262, 9/15/14]

Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act. Lindsey Graham voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2014, legislation designed “to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex,” and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which expanded workers’ rights to take gender-based pay discrimination cases to court. [Senate roll call vote 14, 1/22/09; Senate roll call vote 115, 6/5/12; Senate roll call vote 103, 4/9/14; Senate roll call vote 262, 9/15/14]

Bobby Jindal

Bobby Jindal voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Bobby Jindal voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007, legislation that would strengthen protections for victims of pay discrimination based on sex. [House roll call vote 768, 7/31/07]

John Kasich 

Women working in Gov. John Kasich’s office were paid an average of $9.81 per hour less than men. “A newspaper investigation has found the average pay gap between men and women in the offices of four of Ohio’s five elected statewide officials has grown to as much as almost $10 an hour, as it’s shrunk to under a dollar across the rest of state government. Women working in Republican Gov. John Kasich’s office earn $9.81-an-hour less, on average, than men, the Dayton Daily News analysis published Sunday showed. That’s the highest gender pay gap among statewide officeholders, according to the newspaper’s study of Ohio Department of Administrative Services data. The gender gap compares to $3.99-an-hour under former Gov. Ted Strickland.” [Associated Press, 4/12/14]

Rand Paul

Rand Paul voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act multiple times and compared equal pay legislation to the Soviet Politburo. “Paul, a staunch libertarian, said passing a law that would have given judges more leeway to determine if a woman had been paid unfairly would be a step toward reviving the Soviet Union’s notorious central governing body here. The United States’ free market, he argued, works much better at setting wages at the appropriate level. ‘Three hundred million people get to vote everyday on what you should be paid or what the price of goods are,’ Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill. ‘In the Soviet Union, the Politburo decided the price of bread, and they either had no bread or too much bread. So setting prices or wages by the government is always a bad idea.’” [Huffington Post, 6/5/12; Senate roll call vote 115, 6/5/12; Senate roll call vote 103, 4/9/14; Senate roll call vote 260, 9/10/14; Senate roll call vote 262, 9/15/14]

Rick Perry

Rick Perry called the push for wage equality “nonsense.” “Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday called the debate over equal pay for women that is lighting up the Texas governor’s race ‘nonsense,’ saying the Democrats should focus on ‘substantive issues.’ ‘If they want to talk about substantive issues in Texas in this governor’s race, let’s talk about tax policy, regulatory policy, legal policies. But to go focus on this issue of a piece of legislation that already — that we already have laws that protect it, is nonsense,’ Perry said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Tuesday.” [Politico, 3/25/14]

Rick Perry vetoed fair pay legislation in Texas. “Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has vetoed a bill meant to prevent wage discrimination against women. An aide to state Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D), who authored the equal pay bill, HB 950, said Perry’s office called on Friday to say he had vetoed it. State Sen. Wendy Davis (D), who introduced the Senate version of the legislation, told the Texas Tribune that she had received the same call. In a statement, Thompson said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ and ‘heartbroken.’ ‘Women will still have to struggle to receive their equal pay for their equal work,’ she said. The bill would bring Texas state law in line with the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for women to sue employers over wage discrimination.” [Huffington Post, 6/14/13]

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum opposed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, calling it “a trial lawyers’ bill.” “As polls show the tightening of a gender gap and the chase by both Romney and Obama for an elusive ‘women’s vote’ that everyone agrees is far from monolithic, Santorum dismissed all the fuss over Romney’s ‘binders full of women’ and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, touted by the president Tuesday and since as the first piece of legislation he signed. ‘It’s very interesting that what Barack Obama pointed to was a trial lawyer’s bill,’ Santorum told me after his brief speech. ‘The Lilly Ledbetter bill basically gives women a longer period of time to file a lawsuit,’ he said. ‘This was advocated by the trial lawyers so they could make more money. This had nothing to do with changing the law with respect to pay for women or rights for women. It simply gave lawyers a longer time to sue. This is the kind of small ball this president is playing. He’s not talking about major issues that can improve the employment picture for women or for people in this country. He’s talking about taking care of his friends in the trial bar.’” [Washington Post, 10/18/12]