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Attention ladies! Greg Ball cares so much about your precious rights that he gave you your very own subheading in the "Other Issues" subsection of the Ball Agenda. Isn't it nice to feel so appreciated?
Assemblyman Ball campaign page also helpfully informs voters that having "a mom who worked several jobs and worked nights to keep her family strong, Greg Ball understands that most women have to work twice as hard to get a head." It is too bad that this experience did not convince Ball of the need for stronger anti-discrimination protections for women in the workplace or teach him how to treat female colleagues with respect. In a 2008 floor debate over the "New York State Fair Pay Act," Assemblyman Ball got rather snippy with Assembly Labor Committee Chair Susan John:
Ms. John: The legislation requires that an employer will provide to an employee a written statement of the job title and the wage rate. It also requires that the employer, pursuant to regulations developed by the State Department of Labor, provide that information to the Department of Labor.
Mr. Ball: When you're specifically talking about this piece of legislation, where is the efficiency argument? Where does efficiency come in? Because, you could conceivably have two people doing the same job, the same number of hours, and there has been a lot of emphasis as I listen to the debate in the amount of hours somebody worked. For instance, I grew up on a farm, have you ever milked goat?
Ms. John: No, I haven't.
Mr. Ball: Well I would suggest that if we were both on a farm, that if you allowed me four hours, and you four hours, in an agricultural setting, I'd work you under the table. And, you being a female and me being a male, uh, I may command a higher wage in that particular setting. So, in that instance, are small business owners... are they protected? Is efficiency... does that ever become part of the argument or is that too capitalist?
Not only is Assemblyman Ball's smarmy tone clearly insulting to Assemblyowman John and his example rather offensive since it is premised on the idea that women cannot compete with men, Ball's entire argument is completely irrelevant. Republicans these days are so fond of calling for everyone to read the bills, but it looks like Greg Ball, in classic errant schoolboy style, did not do his homework. Here is what the New York Fair Pay Act actually says: |
(B) NOTWITHSTANDING THE PROVISIONS OF SUBDIVISION (A) OF THIS SECTION,
IT SHALL NOT BE AN UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE FOR AN EMPLOYER TO PAY
DIFFERENT WAGE RATES TO EMPLOYEES, WHERE SUCH PAYMENTS ARE MADE PURSUANT
TO:
(1) A BONA FIDE SENIORITY OR MERIT SYSTEM;
(2) A SYSTEM THAT MEASURES EARNINGS BY QUANTITY OR QUALITY OF
PRODUCTION...
Ball's example with the goat milking was very cute (and creepy in light of subsequent events!), but entirely moot. What is not moot or cute is the fact that this lazy legislator has the nerve to disrespect a distinguished female colleague and run for State Senate as a champion of women's rights.
Cross-posted at The Ball Monitor. |
