Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) cast her vote to pass the landmark Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that will finally ensure equal pay for equal work by closing the gender wage gap and empowering women in the workplace.

“Equal pay is not an issue that only hurts women. It hurts families and it hurts our economy. When women bring home less money each day, it means they have less for the everyday needs of their families – child care, rent, groceries, and doctors’ visits,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “This long overdue legislation modernizes and strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which has been woefully ineffective in ensuring equal pay. Women have been working overtime for a fraction of the pay that men make. It’s long past time for paycheck fairness.”

Fifty-eight years after the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted, full-time working women still earn only 82 cents, on average, for every dollar their male counterparts earn, amounting to a yearly gender gap of $10,157 between full-time working men and women. Furthermore, the wage gap is even larger for women of color – with, on average, Black women earning just 63 cents, Native American women just 60 cents, and Hispanic women just 55 cents for every collar a white, non-Hispanic man earns.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Require employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons - ensuring that employers who try to justify paying a man more than a woman for the same job must show the disparity is not sex-based, but job-related and necessary.
• Ban retaliation against workers who discuss their wages.
• Remove obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate a wronged workers’ participation in class action lawsuits that challenge systemic pay discrimination.
• Improve the Department of Labor’s (DOL) tools for enforcing the Equal Pay Act.
• Provide assistance to all businesses to help them with their equal pay practices, recognize excellence in pay practices by businesses, and empower women and girls by creating a negotiation skills training program.
• Prohibit employers from seeking the salary history of prospective employees.
  

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