“The Paycheck Fairness Act, passed by the House of Representatives today, is important and badly needed legislation that can help combat and undo the discriminatory pay practices that plague our workplaces 45 years after the Equal Pay Act became law. 

This bill is the next essential step in the fight for fair pay.  It carefully balances protections for both employees and employers, and closes gaps that have led to a narrow, constrained reading of the law, hampering its effectiveness.

More than four decades after Congress outlawed wage discrimination based on gender, women in the United States are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts.  For women of color, the numbers are even starker; African-American women are paid just 63 cents and Latinas 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men. 

We applaud the House of Representatives for taking a significant step to address this persistent problem by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338).  All workers deserve fair pay and with our economy struggling, it is especially important that we take steps to ensure that wage discrimination will not continue.”

Click here to read the Paycheck Fairness Act factsheet.