Democrats advanced the Paycheck Fairness Act on Monday, ensuring a vote by the full House later this year on legislation that toughens the penalties businesses face for gender-pay disparities.
Democrats claimed the bill was needed to make the equal pay protections enforceable, while Republicans argued the legislation was little more than a gift to trial lawyers.
The legislation was approved by the House Rules Committee on a party-line vote. All House Democrats and two Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors.
“Some people claim that the pay gap is a myth but Census data shows that women continue to get paid 20 percent less than men,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., author of the bill.
The lawmaker was referring to Census data showing that women earn 80 cents for every dollar that men earn. A Pew Research Center analysis released last week found that the main reason for the gap was differences in “educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience” between women and men. However, it noted that “other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.”
The Paycheck Fairness Act effectively removes many of the legal defenses that businesses use to claim that they aren’t discriminating. It raises the legal standards that employers must meet to prove that any pay disparity wasn’t discriminatory and eliminates any defense “if the employee can then demonstrate that an alternative employment practice exists that would serve the same business purpose,” according to the Democrats’ fact sheet on the bill.
The legislation also prohibits businesses from asking about a worker’s wage history or, if the worker volunteers the information, from using it to determine their current wages.
“It is a bill written by trial lawyers, for trial lawyers,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the committee’s ranking GOP member. He said the legislation opened companies up to more litigation but did nothing to ensure that the litigation actually resulted in workers getting paid what they were owed. A GOP-backed amendment to the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have capped attorney fees was rejected on a party-line vote.
Cole said the GOP-controlled Senate was unlikely to take up the legislation.
