Over 60 years ago President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, a simple law that requires equal pay for equal work. And for 60 years, the gender pay gap has persisted.
We are calling upon our elected officials to support the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Salary Transparency Act as crucial policies that would provide tools to close the wage gap. Both bills would provide much-needed updates to our labor laws that will help close the pay gap and make an incredible difference for working women of color and their families.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would help employees, employers, and enforcement agencies by:
- Protecting Employees from retaliation for discussing salaries with coworkers;
- Prohibit employers from screening applicants based on salary history or requiring salary history during the hiring process;
- Require employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons;
- Provide more power and funding for the government to investigate wage discrimination, and create a system to collect wage data
The Salary Transparency Act would require wage ranges to be provided to job applicants and allow employees to request pay scales for their current roles. This would reflect at the national level a growing trend of local and state-level transparency laws.
Ending the wage gap is essential to creating a future where working women of color, nonbinary people, and our families can thrive on our own terms without worrying about economic hardships. Women of color, moms, and LGBTQ+ workers experience larger pay gaps than their peers, are more likely to be the primary or sole breadwinners in their families, have been affected by the pandemic job losses and care responsibilities, and are overrepresented in low-wage jobs.
Tell Congress that we need to close the wage gap!
