Two years ago, the then-new Democratic-controlled majority in the House of Representatives began a concerted effort to advance pro-worker legislation that had been bottled up for years by the previous Republican majority, in the process passing no fewer than 24 separate bills that would have significantly changed current U.S. employment law, although only three were ultimately enacted. One of those bills that didn’t get enacted was the so-called Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA), a measure that would significantly expand the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and implement other policies that proponents hope will guarantee pay equity.
Importantly, for a bill to become law, it needs the approval of not only the House but also the U.S. Senate (as well the President’s signature), and the Paycheck Fairness Act along with most of the other House-passed workplace bills were never brought up in the last Congress by the still-Republican-controlled Senate.
Not to be deterred, and now with Democrats in control (albeit slim) of both the Congress and the White House, the Democrat House majority recently approved the latest version of the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7), which has been sent to the Senate where it once again awaits an uncertain fate.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.