Byline: ANDREW MOLLISON - Cox News Service
Thirty years after Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, women workers have closed one-fourth of the earnings gap that separates them from men.
On June 10, 1963, as he signed the bill into law, President John F. Kennedy said he hoped that the bill -- passed after a battle that had lasted 18 years -- would "call attention to the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job."
What the law did not affect was policies such as hiring, promotions and wages for people in unequal jobs. In the 30 years since then, it has had only minor effects on the relative economic status of women and men.
Back then, when the pay and benefits of full-time, year-round employees of all races were compared, the typical woman made 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man. By 1991, she was making nearly 70 cents.
"Being 30 percent behind …
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