Do ya think some of the carping from certain entitled women will forever be silenced now that #44′s first legislative signature is for a step towards compensation equality? Probably not, but they’ll look a little more ridiculous in the future. I received an email from Kristen @ MomRising with this photo of her and Lilly Ledbetter at the White House this morning: 

“Passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act reverses a bad U.S. Supreme Court decision that made it impossible to win pay descrimination cases that were filed after 180 days of the pay being set–an important fix to a critical problem, but it doesn’t solve the entire problem of unfair pay practices. We have a long way to go.”

We can send a thanks to the members of Congress that supported this legislation, overturning the obstacles presented by the Bush Administration, Republicans and a rather partisan Supreme Court. The President and First Lady both addressed this landmark moment.

Remember it was John McCain, a man who lives off the wealth of his wife, said women didn’t need equal pay they needed more “education”. Of course who’s going to be paying for that education was never addressed. For women who never marry their earning power is directly tied to what Social Security and other retirement benefits they may (or may not) receive should they not be able to claim a spouse’s earnings. This is another benefit of marriage as legally defined in its current configuration and why same gender relationships will have to be reevaluated. Black women will be especially hit hard should they face retirement on reduced earnings (somewhere in the 55-62 cents range per every dollar earned by a white male), with no spousal compensation and having spent a lot of their resources caring for others.