With just 4 days left in the legislative session, the Florida GOP and Rick Scott are leaving unfinished the business they were elected to do: expand opportunity so that all Floridians have a fair shot at the middle class. Instead, they spent this year’s session giving big handouts to the wealthiest special interests — while leaving Florida’s middle class families behind.

This session, Rick Scott and the GOP had the chance to pass legislation ensuring that Florida women receive equal pay or equal work. They had a chance to take a stand against Florida women making only eighty-four cents for every dollar a man earns. But despite overwhelming public support for the measure, the Republican leadership would not even allow the bill to be heard. 

All women deserve a chance to succeed and earn enough to get ahead, not just get by. By failing to even consider such a commonsense proposal, Rick Scott and the Republicans in Tallahassee are sending the message to our daughters that no matter how hard they work, they don’t deserve to make as much as their brothers.

When women succeed, Florida succeeds. For the nearly ten million women in our state, the passage of an Equal Pay Act remains a major piece of unfinished business.