Sending Office: Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro
Sent By:
Alanna.Purdy@mail.house.gov

Dear Colleague:

All Democratic members cosponsored
The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R.1869 in 115^th) last Congress – a modest, common-sense solution to the lingering problem of pay inequity. We will be reintroducing Paycheck Fairness with
no changes in the 116^th Congress and urge members to once again cosponsor this important legislation.       

Pay discrimination in the workplace is real. More than five decades after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a

woman still makes only 80 cents, on average, for every dollar earned by a man. That gap is even wider for women of color. Compared to white men, African American women are paid

61 cents, Latina Women are
paid 53 cents, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women are paid
62 cents. For a woman working full time year-round, the current wage gap
represents a loss of more than $400,000 over the course of her career. The wage gap impacts women’s ability to save for retirement and reduces their total Social Security and pension benefits, contributing to more older women living in poverty.

Pay inequity not only affects women – it affects children and families and our economy as a whole. That is because women in this country are the

sole or co-breadwinner in half of families with children. Over the past two decades women make a growing share of the family income in all family types. 

In 2009, we took an important step with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which kept the courthouse door open to sue for pay discrimination. We must continue the fight and finish the job by passing into law The Paycheck Fairness Act. 

 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. 

Please join us once again in standing up for women, children, and working families by working to end the wage gap. To become an original cosponsor or if you have any questions, please contact Liz Albertine with Rep. DeLauro at ext. 5-3661 (or
elizabeth.albertine@mail.house.gov) or Eunice Ikene with the Education and Labor Committee at
eunice.ikene@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Rosa L. DeLauro                                                              Robert C. “Bobby” Scott

Member of Congress                                                        Member of Congress

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