Today is Equal Pay Day.  That means that today is the day that the average American woman has earned the same amount that her male counterparts did in 2011.

On Thursday, former Congressman and current GOP Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) reminded us all why it has been so hard to eliminate “Equal Pay Day” from our social fabric.  Hoekstra was attempting to get the crowd going at a Michigan campaign event, and he chose that time to attack the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

“Will, you know, will repealing it be a priority? If you came back and said, you know, that’s really the thing that’s hurting my business the most. My guess is there are other things that we can do that have a higher priority in terms of what I, what I believe might need to be done. I think you know we need to create — that thing is a nuisance. It shouldn’t be the law.”

That’s right.  Providing women with a way to ensure that they get equal pay for equal work is a nuisance.  It is hurting business.

Of course it is.  It’s much easier for a business to be profitable when it is illegally discriminating against more than half of its workforce.

You know what’s a nuisance?  When it takes you 16 months to earn what a man doing the same job would in 12.  When you can’t get a raise because your bosses believe (correctly) that they can get away with paying you less because of your sex.  When you have to fight in court for the same basic considerations that men enjoy.

That is a nuisance.

Providing equal pay for equal work?  That’s just plain human decency.

Happy Equal Pay Day.