126th Morrison Congress

2nd Session

H.R. 126-055
Title of the Bill: Equal Pay Act

Main Author(s): Rep Edward Chou (D-FL) and Liberty Hsiung (D-MD)

Co-Sponsor(s):

BE IT ENACTED BY THE MORRISON CONGRESS

1 SECTION 1: Findings
2 Congress makes the following findings:
3 1) Women are paid 80% of what men are paid. (1)
4 2) In 2016 the pay gap was smallest in New York, where women working full
5 time year-round were paid 89 percent of what men were paid. (1)
6 3) The largest gap was in Louisiana, where women were paid 70 percent of
7 what men were paid. (1)
8 4) Among full-time workers in 2016, Hispanic or Latina, black or African
9 American, American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and Native Hawaiian or
10 other Pacific Islander (NHPI) women had lower median annual earnings
11 compared with non-Hispanic white and Asian women. (1)
12 5) In 2016 women ages 2024 were paid 96 percent of what men were paid,
decreasing to 7889 percent from age 25 to age 54. (1)
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6) By the time workers reach 5564 years old, women are paid only 74 percent
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of what men are paid. (1)
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7) When The WAGE Project looked exclusively at full-time workers, they
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estimated that women with a high school diploma lose as much as $700,000
17 over a lifetime of work, women with a college degree lose $1.2 million and
18 professional school graduates may lose up to $2 million. (3)
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20 SECTION 2: Purpose
21 To require men and women to be given equal pay for equal work in the same
22 establishment.
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24 SECTION 3: General Provisions
25 History has shown that there has always been an unequal pay between men and
26 women. There are more women than men going to school but in every level of
27 academic achievement, a womans average earning is still less than a mans. It is
28 reasonable to think that getting more education means an increase in earnings,
29 however, that does not change the gender pay gap. In some situations, the pay
30 gap is even bigger in higher levels of education. Earnings not only are affected
31 by gender, but it is also depended on race and ethnicity. White women are paid
32 more than black and hispanic women despite the education they have. Hispanic
33 women will have to wait until 2233 and black women will have to wait until 2124
34 for equal pay. The ratio between the earnings of men and women are changing,
35 based on this rate, equality will happen in 2059. But since 2001, the rate has
36 slowed down, so it is not expected for the pay gap to close until 2119. Unequal
37 pay is not only a problem in the United States but rather a global problem. The
38 close in pay gap can also result in the decrease of poverty, a report shows that it
39 can drop by 50% in the United States. This act promotes the equal pay for men
and women under the same amount of work.
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SECTION 4: Definitions
42 Equal pay: is the concept of labor rights that individuals in the same workplace be
43 given equal pay.
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Works Cited:
1. https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
2. https://iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-
discrimination/
3. https://now.org/resource/women-deserve-equal-pay-factsheet/