Former Vice-President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who has vociferously championed the cause of equal pay for women, saying it is “common sense” and “overdue,” paid full-time female staffers working for him in his 35 years in the Senate an average of 67 cents for every dollar male staffers got, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
At the July 31 Democratic presidential debate, Biden boasted: “I wrote the Violence against Women Act. Lilly Ledbetter. I was deeply involved in making sure the equal pay amendments. I was deeply involved on all these things. I came up with the It’s on Us proposal to see to it that women were treated more decently on college campuses … I’m passionate about the concern making sure women are treated equally.”
The same day, he bragged on Twitter, “Vice President Biden has fought for women’s rights his whole career: ✓Wrote the Violence Against Women Act ✓Co-sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment 9 times ✓Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: 1st Obama-Biden bill signed into law ✓Co-sponsored the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.”
Vice President Biden has fought for women's rights his whole career:
✓Wrote the Violence Against Women Act
✓Co-sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment 9 times
✓Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: 1st Obama-Biden bill signed into law
✓Co-sponsored the Pregnancy Discrimination Act— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 1, 2019
As recently as June, when members of the U.S. women’s soccer team publicly complained that they were remunerated less than the men in the U.S. men’s soccer team, Biden tweeted, “In 2019, it’s past time we close the pay gap and ensure women get paid as much as men.”
Good luck to the @USWNT as they take on Chile!
As we cheer them on in the World Cup, we must support their fight off the field for equal pay. In 2019, it’s past time we close the pay gap and ensure women get paid as much as men. #OneNationOneTeam https://t.co/bJQZm2aQMv
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 16, 2019
In 2015, when he was still vice-president, Biden tweeted, “Equal pay for equal work. It’s common sense. It’s also overdue. Let’s close the gap & let’s do it now.”
Equal pay for equal work. It's common sense. It's also overdue. Let's close the gap & let's do it now. #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/BEsIsVV3eB
— VP Biden (Archived) (@VP44) April 14, 2015
In 2012, Biden castigated Paul Ryan, then the GOP candidate for vice-president, saying, “Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter act, which all it said, all Lilly Ledbetter said, was if a woman finds out she’s been treated wrongly, cheated in terms of her salary and benefits at work, then she’s able to sue from the moment she finds out.”
In 2010, urging the Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, Biden said, “What it does is say, ‘Hey, let me know what the field is. What the deal is. Just let us know.’ It’s amazing what a disinfectant sunlight is. This is a chance to get on the right side of history. You have to look into the eyes of your granddaughters and the young women who you hired … and say, ‘You know, when it came time, I didn’t step up.'”
Yet according to the Free Beacon:
When Biden joined the Senate in 1973, the average pay for a full-time female staffer in his office was $5,029, about 68 percent of the $7,383 average paid to men during that span, according to the secretary of the Senate’s first spending report for the 93rd Congress. A Free Beacon analysis of spending reports covering Biden’s full Senate tenure found that he never achieved gender pay equity. Over the course of Biden’s time in the Senate, women on average earned just 67 cents for each dollar earned by men.
The Free Beacon added, “Women garnered as little as 44 percent of what Biden’s male employees made in 1983 and 1984. The disparity sat at 45 percent in early 1991, just months before Biden made Clarence Thomas’s treatment of female workers the focus of Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination hearings.”