End the Gender Pay Gap: Support Equal Wages for Equal Work

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UPDATE (06/08/21): With a 49-50 vote, H.R. 7 has failed in the Senate with no Republicans supporting the legislation. Demand Senators reconsider the H.R. 7 and hold another vote on the legislation.

UPDATE (04/15/21): With a 217-210 vote, the House has passed H.R. 7. The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.

More than 50 years ago, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. Additionally, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 allowing women to sue for paycheck disparities. And yet in the decades since the passage of these and several other laws, women still only earn on average $.82 for every dollar earned by a man.

To close this gap, the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7) has been introduced to amend the Fair Standards and Labor Act of 1934 to substantially help women fight for equal pay and to strengthen the protections ensured by the Fair Pay Act. The bill includes several changes that aim to help women achieve equal pay including making it harder for employers to dodge claims of disparate pay and prohibiting employers from relying on salary history to make salary offers.

Demand your representative make equal pay a legislative priority in 2021 and support this important legislation to close the wage gap.