TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Do your homework before the election or pay the price, potentially with your job. That's the message one of the key figures in the fight for workplace quality has for Florida women.

After discovering she earned less than her male colleagues at the Goodyear tire plant, Lilly Ledbetter took her fight for equal pay all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, with the election looming and an open seat on the high court, she's urging Florida women to think long and hard about which presidential candidate is most likely to advance the cause.

"We are still so far, far behind," she said. "Women still do not get the benefits and the rights that they are entitled to. It is one of the most unbelievable situations in this country."

While Ledbetter lost her case in a 2007 split decision, Congress eventually did pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first act signed into law by President Obama in 2009. Hillary Clinton was a sponsor of that legislation, while Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence voted against it.

Ivanka Trump said during the Republican Convention that her father would likely look at the pay-bias issue. Donald Trump however, has said he'd expect his daughter to leave her job if she were being discriminated against.

Theresa King is the president of the Florida Building Trades, and said that simply isn't an option for most working women.

"To suggest that if I was sexually harassed on a job site, that I am the one who should change careers is an absolute insult to not only me but to every woman that works daily to have their own American dream," she said.

King said she and other members of the Florida AFL-CIO will spend the next few months going door-to-door and trying to educate Florida voters about the importance of women's issues in this election.

Ledbetter said her landmark case may have turned out very differently if a different set of judges sat on the bench. Two of the Supreme Court justices who sided with Ledbetter have since retired, and one who voted against her has died. With one high court vacancy in play, she said it's a reminder that the decisions the next president makes will outlive him or her.

"It could determine our lives for generations to come," she added. "And this year is no less. It is the most critical year of my life."

President Obama and congressional Democrats have tried to pass separate legislation to make it easier for workers to sue for wage discrimination, but that has been blocked by Republicans who argue it would be a boon for trial lawyers that won't help close the pay gap.


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The nation's billionaires have doubled their wealth over the past seven years, while working people in West Virginia and elsewhere continue to face economic struggles.

The collective fortune of America's more than eight hundred billionaires hit a record $5.8 trillion in April, according to a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness.

Gary Zuckett, executive director of the Citizen Action Education Fund, said the Mountain State is just beginning to see the ramifications of a deep income tax cut that was passed last year by state lawmakers.

He said the lack of funding has made it difficult to address steadily worsening problems.

"Like the child-care crisis in West Virginia, the corrections crisis - our prisons have been in the state of emergency for the last three or four years," said Zuckett. "There's a lot of things that we need to be using our tax money for, besides giving it to the rich in income tax cuts."

America's billionaires now own more than 50% more wealth than does the entire bottom half of the nation's households.

Under the current tax code, however, the staggering wealth gains made by the richest are unlikely to ever be taxed.

Trump-era tax benefits for the wealthy enacted in 2017 are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Zuckett explains that the laws cut the top income-tax rate from more than 39% to 37%, and cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

"The mom and pop grocery stores and the people working in Walmart, everyday working people," said Zuckett, "pay taxes on every dollar that they earn, but the system is rigged to benefit people at the top."

According to the report, if the wealthiest Americans were taxed at the rate of average Americans, the nation would have new potential tax revenue of roughly $120 billion each year, which could help pay for more affordable and accessible health care.





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Michigan legislators are tackling predatory lending practices, aiming to set standards for payday loans and maximum interest rates.

In Kent County alone, with a payday loan volume of $60 million, the House Insurance and Financial Services Committee discussed Senate Bill 632, sponsored by Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, which seeks to cap annual interest rates at 36% compared to current rates reaching nearly 400%.

The bill has passed the Senate and is part of a legislative effort including House Bill 5290, sponsored by Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck.

Dallas Lenear, founder and executive director of Project GREEN, a grassroots economic empowerment network, highlighted concerns about the exploitative nature of these loans.

"Payday loans inevitably are designed in a fashion that is unaffordable for the majority of people who use those loans," Lenear contended.

Lenear pointed out many other states have already capped their interest rate or totally outlawed payday loans because of the financial damage they can cause their citizens and argued it is time for Michigan to do better.

Lenear noted while the payday loan industry believes it offers hope to borrowers in times of need, a study by project GREEN found 78% of respondents said payday loans either prolonged or worsened their financial situation.

"If they've had any experience with it, they'll start to shake their head and they'll say those things are terrible and I was caught in the trap and I would never use those things again. I'd use it out of desperation," Lenear reported.

Advocacy groups such as the Michigan League for Public Policy and the Michigan Catholic Conference testified in support of the bills, to end the predatory practices.

A case before the U.S. Supreme Court could have implications for the country's growing labor movement. Justices will hear oral arguments in Starbucks versus McKinney today to determine if the bar should be raised for the National Labor Relations Board when it seeks to impose court-ordered injunctions on companies.

David Groves, communications director with the Washington State Labor Council, said the Supreme Court could further undermine the power of the NLRB, the independent federal agency that protects employees' rights.

"We already have weak labor laws in this country that have such minor penalties for breaking union organizing laws that companies routinely do it, and this is another opportunity for them to weaken labor laws even further," he argued.

The case involves Starbucks' firing of seven employees in Memphis during their union campaign in 2021. The coffee company says it rehired the workers and denies wrongdoing. If the justices rule in favor of Starbucks, it could make it harder for the NLRB to seek court orders.

Groves said the law states that workers have a right to organize unions in their workplace without coercion or retaliation from their employers.

"That's all fine and good but if the penalty's not significant enough, then they'll just go ahead and break that law and consider it the cost of doing business if they have to pay a fine two years down the road," he explained.

Groves said his and other labor organizations support the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize or PRO Act in Congress, which would strengthen labor laws, including providing greater authority to the NLRB.


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