House lawmakers passed legislation Wednesday that aims to end pay discrimination against women and minorities by expanding legal remedies and damages awarded to those victimized by the practice.
Few Republicans voted for the Paycheck Fairness Act, a measure Democrats have been seeking to pass for more than a decade and one based on the premise, disputed by some, that women earn only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, with an even wider gap for minority women.
The bill, which passed by a 242-187 vote in the House, faces certain death in the GOP-led Senate.
Republicans believe the measure will needlessly expose businesses to predatory lawsuits and onerous reporting requirements, among other criticisms.
House approval, however, sends a strong signal the pay equity measure will be touted on the 2020 campaign trail and revived as a priority if Democrats are able to regain control of both chambers of Congress.
“Women go to work for the same reason men go to work and that’s to take care of their families and regardless of the circumstances of gender, we deserve to be paid equally,” Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., said Wednesday.
The measure would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It would add new provisions such as one to prevent employers from retaliating against workers who discuss salaries, which is forbidden or discouraged in many companies.
It also would create new avenues for victims to sue employers and increase the damages that can be awarded to plaintiffs in successful court cases.
The bill would also compel companies to turn wage data over to the federal government.
Under the proposal, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would issue new regulations requiring employers to provide the government “compensation data and other employment-related data (including hiring, termination, and promotion data) disaggregated by the sex, race, and national origin of employees.”
Lawmakers passed an amendment to the bill that excludes companies with fewer than 100 employees from having to report wage data to the EEOC.
Former President Barack Obama instituted such a reporting requirement through executive action, but President Trump ended the practice at the behest of business groups who say the data are a faulty tool to measure income inequality.
The Democratic proposal would make the reporting requirement law so that future presidents would have no power to lift it.
House Republicans opposed to the bill said the measure would only serve as a way to increase the paychecks of trial lawyers and could actually hurt women in the workforce by making it harder to increase their pay based on merit.
“It effectively ties employers hands from considering factors that would allow them to potentially give employees better working environments, for employees to negotiate a higher salary,” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said.
Critics also challenge the claim women earn 20 cents less for every dollar earned by a man and argue career and work choices, such as preferring more time off instead of overtime pay, account for pay differences.
The Paycheck Fairness Act is one of several bill House Democrats have elevated to the top of their agenda this Congress that aims to address inequities based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or gender identification.
The House plans a vote in the coming weeks on the Equality Act, which would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
