Paycheck Fairness Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. HAYES. Madam Speaker, this amendment would allow employers to self-audit compensation disparity. Asking the same employer, who may be engaged in pay discrimination, to self-police their wage practices is a blatant conflict of interest.
Rather than actually incentivizing equal pay, as Ms. Stefanik would claim, this amendment gives employers the tool to hide evidence of pay discrimination and delay any resulting lawsuit and accountability by 3 years. The very idea behind this provision is insidious. It presumes that employers should be given loopholes to avoid liability after breaking the law. Employers do not need a workaround to guard against these types of lawsuits. Their best defense is simple: do not engage in wage discrimination.
In fact, this amendment actually creates another means for employers to discriminate on the basis of sex by preserving a vague standard for employer defense when accused of wage discrimination. Unlike Ms. Stefanik's proposed amendment, H.R. 7 makes clear that the ``any factor other than sex'' employer defense must be bona fide, job-related, and required by business necessity.
Employees must be judged by their education, training or experience instead of their gender. As women drop out of the workforce in historic numbers due to the pressures of COVID-19, we have a responsibility to take every precaution to ensure they do not face discrimination when they return to the workforce.
The Paycheck Fairness Act ensures all workers will get equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender. It will prohibit employers from paying women less simply because another employer paid them less in the past. It helps to oppose pay discrimination with more speed and transparency, and allows women to fight pay injustices they may experience. The Paycheck Fairness Act fixes a systemic injustice that women have suffered.
This amendment would only water down this landmark civil rights and labor legislation. Madam Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' to this amendment and stand up for equity.
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