The Democratic-led House Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday advanced the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that toughens penalties that businesses face for gender-pay disparities, through a party-line vote.
The legislation effectively removes many of the legal defenses that businesses use to claim that they aren’t discriminating and makes it unlawful for businesses to inquire about a worker’s wage history or use it as a hiring factor if they know, among other provisions.
“Even when wage discrimination is discovered, workplace rules that restrict information about wages and pay raises often keep working women from holding employers accountable for discrimination,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chairman of the committee.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the committee’s ranking GOP member, called the legislation pointless since equal pay discrimination was already illegal. “This not a bill for women. This is a bill for trial lawyers,” she said. “It charts no path towards a greater sense of fairness. It simply provides a roadmap for driving lawsuits deeper into the court system. It provides no new protections, just new ways to increase billable hours.”
The legislation has 239 co-sponsors, only one of whom is Republican. It is unlikely to be taken up by the GOP-controlled Senate should the full House pass it.
