Fair Pay

The Paycheck Fairness Act

Equal work deserves equal pay. In this time of economic crisis, women and families cannot afford to bear the burden of this discrimination.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would make it harder for employers to hide pay discrimination, would help train women and girls about salary negotiation, support government collection of critical wage data, and reward employers that have good pay practices.

Read the key provisions below for more information on how the Act would help fight discrimination in the workplace.

Key Provisions in the Paycheck Fairness Act

For employees, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who discuss salaries with their colleagues;
• Require that employers defend any gender pay disparities by showing that the pay differences exist for legitimate, job-related reasons;
• Remove an inequality in wage discrimination law so that remedies available to plaintiffs in Equal Pay Act claims will be the same as the damages available to plaintiffs who file pay discrimination claims under other laws;
• Remove obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate participation in class action lawsuits challenging systemic pay discrimination; and
• Create a negotiation skills training program for women and girls.

For employers, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Recognize employers for excellence in their pay practices; and
• Provide assistance to all businesses, with a special focus on small businesses, to help them with their equal pay practices.

For enforcement agencies, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Ensure the Department of Labor utilizes the full range of investigatory tools to uncover pay discrimination, including collecting wage data from federal contractors; and
• Direct the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to conduct a survey of what pay information is available to assist federal agencies with enforcing pay discrimination laws and to use that information to create a system to collect wage data.

Urge your members of Congress to support the Paycheck Fairness Act »