Rep. Ilhan Omar Celebrates Passage of Paycheck Fairness Act, Including Amendment She Coauthored

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act – securing equal pay for equal work, and bringing our nation closer to its founding promise of full fairness and equality.

The final bill included an amendment offered by Rep. Omar and Rep. Don Beyer that that will ensure that major employers are required to report more detailed data to the Equal Employment Commission, in an effort to help identify and fight the growing racial gender gap.

"I am proud to be part of a Congress that is finally taking action to close the gender pay gap. After so many years of inaction on this issue when our Republican colleagues were in the majority, it's about time," Rep. Omar said. "Statistics show us that pay disparity isn't a thing of the past. It's happening today. And it isn't just holding women back – it's also amplifying racial inequality across the country. Black women are only making only 61 cents on the dollar. For Latina women, it's 53 cents. And Native women, 58 cents. This bill will go a long way towards finally ending systemic pay discrimination in this country and easing the disparities that working women of color are up against."

Among its key provisions, the Paycheck Fairness Act:

• Requires 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.
• Bans retaliation against workers who voluntarily discuss or disclose their wages.
• Ensures women can receive the same robust remedies for sex-based pay discrimination that are currently available to those subjected to discrimination based on race and ethnicity.
• Removes obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate a wronged worker's participation in class action lawsuits that challenge systemic pay discrimination.
• Makes improvements in the Department of Labor's tools for enforcing the Equal Pay Act.
• Provides assistance to all businesses to help them with their equal pay practices, recognizes excellence in pay practices by businesses, and empowers women and girls by creating a negotiation skills training program.
• Prohibits employers from relying on salary history in determining future pay, so that pay discrimination does not follow women from job to job.