It's been a couple of weeks since Rand Paul's comments about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but I still feel obligated to note how strongly Americans generally feel about non-discrimination in employment. The ACLU just released a poll conducted by Lake Research Partners that shows strong support for stronger employment anti-discrimination measures--respondents were asked if they would support “a new law that would provide women more tools to get fair pay in the workplace.”
The ACLU is touting this as evidence of popular support for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it harder for employers to pay men and women different salaries for the same work, but I think the poll would require a more specific question in order to really determine whether that's true. What the poll does show is that Americans, broadly speaking, think the freedom of getting paid for your work regardless of your gender is more important than the freedom to pay people less money for the same work because of their gender.
-- A. Serwer
