Harkin, Boswell push for equal pay for women

It’s a different kind of battle of the sexes. Senator Tom Harkin is renewing his call to close the sexual wage gap. A U-S Census Bureau report says women are paid 73-cents for every dollar a man earns.While the “Equal Pay Act” was first passed in 1963, Harkin says current law has not reached far enough to combat the problem. He says that legislation should be strengthened and updated.Harkin has introduced legislation to eliminate wage discrimination based on sex, race or national origin. Congressman Leonard Boswell is pushing a similar bill in the House to even up the pay between men and women.Boswell hopes one of the bills makes it through the process.Boswell says the “pay gap” costs Iowa families two-point-one BILLION dollars annually. The A-F-L C-I-O and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research say annual wages for women in Iowa could rise by more than 13-percent if a pay equity law were passed.