BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Senators will consider whether to prohibit private businesses in Louisiana from paying unequal wages to employees of different genders for the same job, after a Senate committee supported an equal-pay proposal Wednesday.

The measure by Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, received the backing of the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. It would require employers in the private and public sector to pay employees who are doing the same work equally.