AGC-Opposed Paycheck Legislation Advances in Senate, for Now

This week, the Senate voted to advance debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act by a vote of 73 to 25. The bill would give the government greater control over how a company’s employees are paid by expanding the Equal Pay Act to limit an employer’s ability to make pay decisions based on experience, local market rates, education, or other business factors. It could also threaten incentive programs, promote class action law suits, and create unlimited compensatory and punitive damages in Equal Pay Act cases. This bill would apply to all employers with two or more employees. The legislation was originally considered in April, but ultimately stalled because the bill failed to meet the threshold of 60 votes. During the April debate, all republicans opposed it, while all democrats supported it. This week’s vote was a procedural hurdle and the legislation will have to overcome another 60 vote threshold again on Monday before the Senate can vote on its passage. The vote Monday is expected to fail, similar to the April outcome. In advance of this week’s vote, AGC joined over 20 national employer associations in an opposition letter to the legislation. Consideration of the legislation for a second time is viewed as a political move ahead of the November mid-term elections as many of the provisions of the Paycheck Fairness Act are contained within presidential directives. So far this year, four executive orders and one presidential memorandum impacting contractors that hold federal agency contracts or receive federally-assisted contracts administered by state and local governments have been issued. Those executive orders and memorandum, in chronological order, call for: (1) raising the minimum wage paid to federal contractor employees ; (2) prohibiting retaliation against employees who reveal compensation information; (3) mandating new employee compensation data reporting; (4) prohibiting sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination; and (5) altering considerations for contract award based on contractor labor law violations, limiting employer-mandated arbitration, and requiring contractors to provide certain pay information to employees. For more information, please contact Jim Young at (202) 547-0133 or youngj@agc.org.