For Equal Pay Day, Norton Introduced Bills to Require Equal Pay for Men and Women and to Prohibit Salary History Questions
Press Release
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, announced today that, in honor of Equal Pay Day, March 24th, she introduced two bills to help close the wage gap. Equal Pay Day marks the number of additional days women must work to earn what men earned the prior year. The Fair Pay Act (H.R. 2243) would require that if men and women are doing comparable work, they must be paid comparable wages. The Pay Equity for All Act of 2021 (H.R. 2242) would prohibit employers from asking job applicants for their salary history before making a job or salary offer. The Pay Equity for All Act is included in the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7), which the House is expected to pass this month.
"Equal Pay Day is an annual reminder that American women do not earn the same wages as their male counterparts," Norton said. "I have therefore introduced these two important bills to help close the wage gap for women and for minorities. These changes are long overdue to help remove the entrenched disparities that are faced by women and minorities in the job market."
The Fair Pay Act builds on the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by allowing women to show that some or all of a wage disparity is based on gender-segregated comparable jobs. For example, if a women is employed as an emergency services operator, which is a female-dominated profession, she should not be paid less than a fire dispatcher, which is a male-dominated profession, just because these jobs have been historically dominated by one sex.
The Pay Equity for All Act would help reduce the wage gap by prohibiting employers from asking for an applicant's salary history. Workers from historically disadvantaged groups often start their careers with lower wages than their white male counterparts and can never catch up. While employers may not intend to discriminate, asking for prior salary information can have a discriminatory effect and reinforce the wage gap.
Source