News From Congressman Eliot Engel

Engel Marks Equal Pay Day by Calling for Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act

  Congressman Eliot L. Engel today marked Equal Pay Day by calling for the passage of H.R. 1869, the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Equal Pay Day falls on April 10^th, the 100^th day of 2018, symbolizing the 100 extra days that the average American woman had to work just to earn what men did in 2017. American women working full-time typically earn 80 cents for every dollar that men earn doing the same work.

This divide grows even wider for women of color. Black women’s Equal Pay Day will not come until August 7^th, and Latinas’ Equal Pay Day falls on November 1^st – meaning they must work nearly a full extra year to match men’s earnings.

To finally eliminate this pervasive pay gap, Congressman Engel is an original cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. This bill, introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, would create stronger penalties for pay discrimination, allow women to join together in class-action lawsuits in response to sex-based pay discrimination, prohibit employers from punishing employees who share salary information, and take needed steps to ensure discriminatory salaries do not hold women back throughout their careers.

“There is absolutely no reason why any Member of Congress should oppose equal pay for equal work – and yet, only one House Republican has cosponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act,” Congressman Engel said. “This should not be a partisan issue in Washington. Women are not second class citizens and it’s long past time our laws reflected that.

“It is time to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, and close the pay gap once and for all.”

Engel was an original cosponsor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which became law in 2009.

Engel: Make Sure You Take Advantage of ConEd’s Storm Reimbursement Program

  Congressman Eliot L. Engel is urging all those affected by last month’s storm outages to take advantage of Con Edison’s reimbursement program.

In a letter to ConEd, Engel demanded the utility company reimburse their customers for the series of outages that affected the area last month. ConEd has since announced that it will reimburse customers for food and prescription medicine spoilage if they lost power for at least three consecutive days. Those reimbursements for eligible residential customers amount to $225 without receipts, or up to $515 with receipts. Business owners are eligible for food spoilage reimbursements up to $10,200 with receipts. Those seeking to file for reimbursements for spoilage can check the company’s website here: http://bit.ly/2FD2mm8.

In addition, If you lost power for 3 days or more during the March 2 and March 7 nor’easters, ConEd will provide you with an adjustment to your bill that will reflect a one-time reduction to your monthly customer delivery charge. Customers will receive this credit on their bill by May 21.

“ConEd dropped the ball for thousands of New Yorkers during last month’s swing of nor’easters and its important they make these adjustments for their customers,” Engel said. “I demanded ConEd provide their customers with reimbursement for these outages, and while I am pleased they are working towards this goal, much more needs to be done to ensure another incident like this won’t take place in the future.”