A decade ago, on Jan. 29, 2009, newly inaugurated President Barack Obama signed his first bill into law: the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

十年前，2009年1月29日，新上任的美國總統(tǒng)巴拉克·奧巴馬簽署了他的第一個法案：《莉莉·萊德貝特2009年公平薪酬法案》。

It was the latest legislative effort to close the persistently stubborn gap between how much women and men earn. At the time, a level that hadn’t improved all that much since the 1990s, according to Census data.

這是最新的立法努力，以縮小男女收入之間存在的頑固差距。但根據(jù)人口普查的數(shù)據(jù)，自上世紀(jì)90年代以來，這一水平并沒有得到太大的改善。

The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 2007 ruled 5-4 that employees must file a complaint within 180 days after their employer makes a pay decision. The fact that the discrimination was embedded in each paycheck and that Ledbetter didn’t know of the disparity for many years did not matter. Time had run out on her claim.

這起案件一直上訴到最高法院，最高法院在2007年以5：4的裁決要求雇員必須在雇主作出薪酬決定后180天內(nèi)提出申訴。事實(shí)上，這種歧視根植于每一份工資中，萊德貝特多年來都不知道這種差異，但這并不重要。她索賠的時間已經(jīng)不多了。

read from the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the ruling denied workplace realities. She pointed out that since employees often lack information about pay disparities, which can accumulate slowly over time, they shouldn’t be given such a narrow window in which to file a complaint.

大法官露絲·巴德·金斯伯格(Ruth Bader Ginsburg)在法庭上宣讀了這一判決，她指出，這一裁決否定了工作場所的現(xiàn)實(shí)情況。她指出，由于員工往往缺乏有關(guān)薪酬差距的信息，而這些信息會隨著時間的推移慢慢積累，因此不應(yīng)該給他們這么短的時間來投訴。

Ultimately, the 111th Congress and President Obama agreed with Justice Ginsburg and nullified the decision. It makes clear that the statute of limitations for filing a wage discrimination claim resets with each discriminatory paycheck.

最終，第111屆國會和奧巴馬總統(tǒng)同意金斯伯格大法官的意見，廢除了這一決定。明確提出工資歧視索賠的訴訟時效隨每一份歧視性工資而重置。

A disappointing impact

然而，這項(xiàng)法律的影響令人失望。

And for women of color, the gap is even starker. Latinas earn 52 cents to the dollar of white men, while African-American women earn just 61 cents. Within racial groups, a pay gap between men and women persists, although it is narrower.

對于有色人種的女性來說，差距更大。白人男性每賺1美元，拉丁裔女性只有52美分，而非裔美國女性也僅為61美分。在種族群體中，男女之間的收入差距雖然縮小了，但仍然存在。

A stubborn gap
The gap between what women and men earn has barely budged in recent decades. Currently, women earn about 80 percent of what men make.

頑固的差距：
近幾十年來，男女收入的差距幾乎沒有變化。目前，女性的收入約為男性的80%。

These statutory interpretations may sound technical, but they matter. They help explain why the gap appears stuck at 80 cents and why some estimate it’ll be at least until 2059 until pay equity in the United States is reached.

這些法定解釋聽起來可能是技術(shù)性的，但它們很重要。它們有助于解釋為什么差距似乎停留在80美分，以及為什么一些人估計(jì)至少要到2059年美國的薪酬公平才能實(shí)現(xiàn)。

Why it persists
Another reason the gap is so stubborn is that men and women are steered into different occupations, and male-dominated occupations pay more for comparable work.

為什么差距仍然存在：
這種差距如此頑固的另一個原因是，男性和女性被引導(dǎo)進(jìn)入不同的職業(yè)，男性主導(dǎo)的職業(yè)為類似的工作支付更高的工資。

And so-called “choices” cannot explain why female recent college graduates are paid 82 percent of their male counterparts or why the gap widens at the top. Professional women with advanced degrees who work full-time face a gender gap of 74 percent.

而所謂的“選擇”也無法解釋為什么最近大學(xué)畢業(yè)的女性薪酬是男性同事的82%，也無法解釋為什么在高層的差距會擴(kuò)大。擁有高學(xué)歷的全職職業(yè)女性面臨74%的性別差異。

Closing the gender gap
Closing the gender pay gap is not rocket science – even though recently graduated female rocket scientists earn 89 cents on the dollar to their male peers.

縮小性別差距：
縮小性別薪酬差距并不是什么高難度的科學(xué)——盡管最近畢業(yè)的女性科學(xué)家的薪酬僅為男性的89%。

The economic gains from closing the gender pay gap are huge. Doing so would add about $513 billion to the economy because of the extra income generated, reduce poverty and do a lot to support American families since mothers are the sole or primary breadwinners in about half of them.

縮小性別薪酬差距所帶來的經(jīng)濟(jì)效益是巨大的。這樣做將為經(jīng)濟(jì)增加約5130億美元的額外收入，減少貧困，并為美國家庭提供大量支持，因?yàn)槟赣H是大約一半家庭的唯一或主要經(jīng)濟(jì)支柱。

Passing the Lilly Ledbetter Act was a start, and now we owe it to American workers to enact laws that close the gap once and for all.

通過《莉莉·萊德貝特法案》這樣一個開端，現(xiàn)在我們欠美國工人一個責(zé)任。要制定法律，一勞永逸地縮小這一差距。

評論翻譯

原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：土撥鼠之日 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處
論壇地址：http://www.ltaaa.com/bbs/thread-483740-1-1.html

Neenah Estrella-Luna
Thank you for this. The citations and links are valuable for my students to explore this issue more. And I love the line about the pay disparities among rocket scientists. Very clever.

謝謝你這么做。引文和鏈接對我的學(xué)生進(jìn)一步探索這個問題是有價值的。我喜歡這句關(guān)于火箭科學(xué)家(內(nèi)行專家)之間收入差距的話。非常聰明。

Michele Gilman
Thank you! I hope the article is helpful; there are some excellent resources in the links. Our students will be in their 60s before this gap is expected to close. That’s too long!

謝謝你！我希望這篇文章是有幫助的;在鏈接中有一些很好的資源。我們的學(xué)生將在60多歲時，這一差距有望縮小。不過時間可太長了!