WASHINGTON — Thursday, the House passed H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which Rep. Annie Kuster (NH-02) helped introduce earlier this year. This legislation would help eliminate pay disparities based on gender by requiring employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons, banning retaliation against workers who voluntarily discuss or disclose their wages, improving enforcement of pay discrimination, and closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

“Equal work should equate to equal pay, full stop,” said Rep. Kuster. “Yet, in 2021 in the United States, women on average make 81 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make, and the wage gap is even larger for women of color. This is unacceptable — we cannot allow American families who count on a woman to support them to suffer from pay discrimination. I’m proud to co-sponsor the Paycheck Fairness Act to bring our country closer to ensuring that women receive equal pay for equal work, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take swift action on this much-needed legislation.”

A strong advocate for paycheck fairness and an original cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, Rep. Kuster believes pay inequity is not a women’s issue, but a family issue. Since taking office, Kuster has worked to level the playing field for women and their families and fought to create equal opportunities for female professionals and women-owned businesses.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would:

Require employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons.

In doing so, it ensures 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 worker’s participation in class action lawsuits that challenge systemic pay discrimination.

Improve DOL’s tools for enforcing the Equal Pay Act.

To help the Department of Labor better uncover wage discrimination, it will speed up the collection of wage data from federal contractors, direct the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to conduct a survey of available wage information and create a system of wage data collection, and instruct DOL to conduct studies and review available research and data to provide information on how to identify, correct, and eliminate illegal wage disparities.

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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