Equal pay laws are one of the core protections of a civilised state. Prohibiting discriminatory pay-rates on the basis of gender frees women to pursue a career and frees families to choose their own social arrangements. And while they have not been as effective as we'd want - the stubborn persistence of gender-pay gaps shows that - they're still a vital safeguard against overt discrimination.
Except in Wisconsin. There, the State government, which has been at the vanguard of Republican madness in the US, has just repealed the state's Equal Pay Enforcement Act. Why? Because in the words of one state Senator, "money is more important for men". So therefore obviously his state should treat women worse, to make men feel better.
Just another example of how the US right is hell-bent on driving their country backwards and rolling back the last hundred years of social progress.
