Paycheck Fairness Act

Paycheck Fairness Act

Long title	To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.
Announced in	the 118th United States Congress
Sponsored by	Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Number of co-sponsors	216
Legislative history
Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 17 by Rosa DeLauro (D–CT) on March 10, 2023 Committee consideration by House Education and Labor

The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R.7) is a proposed United States labor law that would add procedural protections to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of an effort to address the gender pay gap in the United States. A Census Bureau report published in 2008 stated that women's median annual earnings were 77.5% of men's earnings.^[1] Recently this has narrowed, as by 2018, this was estimated to have decreased to women earning 80-85% of men's earnings.^[2] One study^[3] suggests that when the data is controlled for certain variables, the residual gap is around 5-7%; the same study concludes that the residual is because "hours of work in many occupations are worth more when given at particular moments and when the hours are more continuous. That is, in many occupations, earnings have a nonlinear relationship with respect to hours."

The bill "punishes employers for retaliating against workers who share wage information, puts the justification burden on employers as to why someone is paid less and allows workers to sue for punitive damages of wage discrimination."^[4] Another provision of the bill would start programs to train women in ways to better negotiate their wages.^[4]