Women at the workplace and ballot box: the newest Ted Strickland-Rob Portman disagreement

Rob Portman

As Sen. Rob Portman's campaign launched "Women for Portman" today, Ohio Democrats supporting Ted Strickland struck back by demanding that Portman refund part of his paycheck -- the part representing how much less money women make on average.

(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Compare average wages for men and women. Women make 77 cents -- or 78 cents, depending on the year and other factors measured -- for every dollar in a man's paycheck. (Wait for it, folks, before you start saying "but...but...but.")

And since U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, refused to support the Paycheck Fairness Act in 2012, 2014 and 2015, Ohio Democrats on Friday issued a request: Give back 23 percent of your paycheck.

"If Senator Portman believes Ohio women deserve just 77 percent of the paychecks they earn, he ought to be willing to take just 77 percent of his $174,000 Senate salary," Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus Chairwoman Kathy DiCristofaro said in seeking the refund. "So, Ohio women are calling on Portman to put his own money where his mouth is and give 23 percent of his paycheck back to the taxpayers."

Let's take up the politics of this first. The Ohio Democratic Party, which supports former Gov. Ted Strickland in the primary race to pick a nominee who will challenge Portman in November 2016, didn't just issue the paycheck-fairness challenge willy-nilly. It did so because Portman's reelection campaign on Friday launched a group to build support among women for the senator's reelection.

Called "Women for Portman," the kickoff started in Columbus with a luncheon featuring Ann Romney, wife of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Four prominent women are heading Women for Portman: Jo Ann Davidson, a former Ohio House speaker and former co-chair of the national Republican Party; Betty Montgomery, the former state auditor and attorney general; Mary Taylor, the incumbent Ohio Lt. Governor, and Jane Portman, the senator's wife.

Davidson and Montgomery were the first women to serve in their state government capacities.

Women for Portman appears less focused on gender-related social issues than on building a base of voters who agree with Portman on other issues. Portman wants lower taxes and a regulatory environment that he says would be less hostile to businesses and help them create jobs.

As far as social issues, Portman supports gay marriage, although his preferred route to making it legal for gay couples to wed had been to wait for states to end their bans -- he said society was moving in that direction swiftly -- rather than have courts decide. The U.S. Supreme Court decided anyway, and although a number of Portman's GOP colleagues were displeased, most have stopped complaining publicly, at least at the national level.

Portman's challenge with the women's vote

Portman opposes abortion and wants to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood, saying the money it gets for women's health services should be transferred to community health centers. His strong relationship with the Right to Life movement helped temper conservatives' disappointment with his gay marriage stance.

In recent polling by Quinnipiac University, which follows politics in Ohio and other presidential swing states, Portman and Strickland have been in a statistical tie for months. But if the election were held today and all the men stayed home, Strickland would win in a landslide.

Women prefer Strickland over Portman by 52 percent to 34 percent, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll, released Oct. 8. Portman particularly struggles to attract support from black women. Only 9 percent of black women surveyed by Quinnipiac said they'd vote for him if the election were today.

You could quibble that black women represented too small a share in this poll to get a statistically valid figure, but it would be hard to argue with the broader point.

And yet, if you want to stay in the weeds for a second longer -- which we will because these are numbers political consultants look at -- you could consider a different perspective: the candidates' favorability ratings.

Thirty-three percent of women told Quinnipiac in its most recent Ohio poll that they hold a favorable view of Portman, compared with 19 percent who said they didn't. A whopping 47 percent said they had not heard enough about the senator to form a favorable or unfavorable view.

That means that while Portman is not where he might want to be with an important bloc, there is opportunity for him to make up ground. This is why Women for Portman matters.

It is also why Ohio Democrats, including those working to elect Strickland, have their own chance to shape these views. Strickland not only fares better than Portman in a head-to-head match-up with women voters, but he also fares much better when it comes to favorability among women: 47 percent favorable, 27 percent unfavorable, and 25 percent who haven't heard enough.

So, back to the Democrats' criticism Friday. The Ohio Democratic Party cited Portman's votes against the Paycheck Fairness Act and his support for defunding Planned Parenthood. It cited his vote in 2014 against raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10, saying that two-third of minimum-wage earners in Ohio are women.

The Democrats also said Portman voted to let insurance companies charge women more than men for health coverage, and to raise their charges for women's preventive care and birth control. There was no legislation labeled that way, but Portman has voted to cut or end provisions of the the Affordable Care Act that pertained to coverage of certain women's health services. And the act, popularly known as Obamacare, separately ended premium-price differences for men and women.

But are the general characterizations correct?

What they supported -- and didn't support

Portman in fact voted against the minimum-wage hike in 2014, saying that by driving up employers' expenses during a weak economy, it would cost jobs.

But in March this year, he supported a budget amendment -- sponsored by Vermont independent/democratic socialist Bernie Sanders -- that would have "promoted a substantial increase in the minimum wage." Portman said he voted for it because it would have opened the door to indexing the wage for inflation, which Ohio's minimum wage does. But he also said that raising it too high or fast could kill jobs.

The difference between the two votes? The bill in 2014 was specific and would have been binding. The one in 2015 was vague and nonbinding. It was intended to provide guidance for future discussions.

On paycheck fairness, Portman says the federal government already has a law that prohibits gender discrimination. He said when the issue came up last year that the proposed new law would lead to more litigation and make it harder for companies to give raises based on merit.

From a legal standpoint, the bill would have shifted the burden of proof to employers, requiring them to demonstrate that pay differences for men and women exist for legitimate reasons, such as education and experience. This could have made it easier to bring lawsuits -- which would be good, say those fighting discrimination. Or bad, say those who saw the prospect of paying thousands just for defense.

There is almost no question that pay differences exist when all working men are measured against all working women. But the differences are not the same when other variables are thrown in, and the figure has changed over time. The Pew Research Center this year said that when comparing hourly wages rather than weekly earnings, the real gap comes to 84 cents for every $1 dollar a man makes. For younger women, the pay gap has shrunk to 93 cents, Pew said.

Then there's Portman's own pay of $174,00 a year. Women in the Senate and other political positions of power lack representation at the same rate as men. But Portman's pay is the same as that of all Senate members except for a few top leaders.

What about Strickland?

As for Strickland, he was criticized as governor for not appointing more women to boards and commissions, and for wage disparities in top state jobs. The pay gap grew much larger, however, under his successor, Gov. John Kasich, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis.

In 2008, Strickland opposed a labor-led measure to require paid sick leave, saying that while he hoped all employers would provide it, such a requirement would be unwieldy and hurt Ohio's then-struggling economy.

The push and pull from labor unions, workers, employers, industry groups and political parties has affected both Portman and Strickland. But their disagreement now, going into 2016, goes more directly than ever to core economic claims: Strickland says that expanding wages and benefits, and assuring equal pay, will make for healthier and more successful families, which will help the workplace as well as society in general.

Portman says that in an environment in which employers, especially small businesses, feel squeezed, these new benefits will add to costs and could backfire.

And so, asked to respond to the Ohio Democrats' criticism Friday, Portman's campaign manager, Corry Bliss, said, "No one opposes equal pay for equal work. The worst thing for Ohio women and families in recent history was having Ted Strickland as governor when Ohio lost over 350,000 jobs and ranked 48th in job creation."

Which means: The Democrats hope that with the support of women and a focus on women's issues, they can take Portman's job.

And Portman hopes that by focusing on jobs, he can keep his.

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