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U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, joined Lilly Ledbetter Wednesday in calling for an end to the pay discrimination American women endure with every paycheck.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that Ledbetter, a supervisor at the Goodyear Tire plant, could not sue for pay discrimination because she did not file her claim within 180 days of her pay being set. Her visit to Capitol Hill came as the Senate plans to take up the Fair Pay Restoration Act, a legislative fix for the ruling that narrowed an employee’s right to sue over employment discrimination. Harkin is an original co-sponsor of the bill.

"Sometimes discrimination is brazen and in-your-face, like with Jim Crow and apartheid. And sometimes discrimination is silent and insidious. This is exactly what is happening, today, in workplaces across America," said Harkin. "Pay discrimination is a harsh reality in the workplace, and it is not only unfair, it is also demeaning and demoralizing. Individual women should not have to do battle in order to win equal pay. We need more inclusive national laws to make equal pay for equal work a basic standard - and a legal right – in the American workplace."

Harkin also noted that passage of the Fair Pay Act would have prevented the problem in the first place because it would have required Ledbetter's employer to disclose pay scales. The Fair Pay Act would also require employers to provide equal pay for equivalent jobs - addressing the historic pattern of undervaluing and underpaying so-called "women's" jobs. For example, housekeepers (a female-dominated field) are paid less than janitors (a male-dominated field) even though both jobs require similar levels of skill, effort, and responsibility. The Fair Pay Act would ensure that when working conditions are similar, wages would also be similar.

"More than 40 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women's wages still lag behind their male counterparts' wages - women make only 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes. The average woman loses an estimated $700,000 over her lifetime due to unequal pay practices," said Harkin. "My Fair Pay Act would give women the information they need to identify discriminatory pay practices. While we can’t re-write history for Lilly Ledbetter, we can ensure that American women working today are getting a fair salary."

Further details about the Fair Pay Act can be found on Harkin's site.