The Paycheck Fairness Act is a legislation adopted by the US congress intended to expand the scope of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is an effort made to address the male-female income disparity in the United States. According to the census, woman made 77 cents on the make dollar. It is a kind of disparity leading to systematic discrimination against women and her lifestyle choices.
Paycheck-Fairness-Act
The bill was later approved by the House of Representatives in January 2009. Then the United States Senate failed to move the bill ahead in November 2010. It was later announced by the President Barack Obama in March 2011 that he will continue to fight for the goals in the Paycheck Fairness Act. Later this bill was reintroduced in both houses of Congress in April 2011.
The main objective of the bill was to address the issue of wage discrimination, allowing employees to disclose salary information with co-workers despite workplace rules prohibiting disclosure. If there is any wage discrepancy found then the employers will have to prove their part based on genuine business requirements and specific characteristics of the position that are not gender-based.
This bill is also required to prohibit retaliation by companies against individuals who raise wage-parity issues, provide resources to help women develop their negotiating skills and would include further research to understand the lingering causes of wage discrepancies between men and women.
Obama administration and Democrats in the Senate fully supported the 2010 Senate version. President Obama also said that “this legislation is a common-sense bill that will help ensure that men and women who do equal work receive the equal pay that they and their families deserve.” The American Association of University Women also supported the bill to a large extent.
Helpful Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_Fairness_Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/05/statement-president-paycheck-fairness-act
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Paycheck Fairness Act. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.