Paycheck "Fairness" Is Anything But Fair

Today, the House is voting on a bill, the so-called “Paycheck Fairness Act,” H.R. 7, which would make it easier for an employee or employees who allege wage discrimination to sue their employer while also making it nearly impossible for employers to defend their practices. Most importantly, not only does it do this at no benefit to the women it purports to be for, but actually does it at their expense, by harming job creators who offer the variety of jobs that women enjoy choice within.

The Big Picture

As is par for the course with Democrats these days, from the “COVID-19 relief” $1.9 trillion blue state bailout to the “infrastructure” proposal billed the “American Jobs Plan” which is another $2.5 trillion in leftist agenda items, yet another bill is coming up for a vote in the House that does not in actuality reflect what it purports to be for.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is an attempt by the left to address the gender wage gap, which they argue is solely the result of employer discrimination between men and women.

The Details

Why the “gender wage gap” as framed by the left is a myth:

• While data from the Census Bureau does show that women working full time earn 80 percent of what men earn, this is explained not by discrimination, but instead by women and men making different employment choices as a result of a difference in prioritization when choosing a job.

Why the Paycheck Fairness Act does nothing to increase gender equality in the workplace and is a “solution” in search of a problem, that will inevitably create new problems:

• It is already illegal, as enacted in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, to pay men and women different wages for equal work.
• It would shift the burden of proof in enforcing this law fully onto the employer being sued, by forcing them to prove that 100 percent of a pay difference between men and women are related to “bona fide factors,” which is nearly impossible to prove and would have devastating consequences on our nation’s job creators.
• It would spend more federal dollars to authorize a grant program to provide negotiation skills to girls and women as well as mandate data collection and reports related to pay equity.
• It would make it illegal for an employer to consider wage and benefit history when considering a potential employee while also imposing civil penalties for violations of this provision.

Why It Matters

As anybody involved in business can tell, these types of policies and mandates are harmful — not helpful — for employees.

Once again, the left has chosen to play identity politics to convince women that they are on their side.

What masquerades as a gender-equality bill is in fact just a giveaway to trial lawyers that will: * Kill jobs * Harm women’s (and men’s) ability to find and negotiate employment best suited for them * Do nothing to increase gender equality in the workplace