Bill Text: TX HCR151 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging Congress to pass H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-15 - Referred to International Relations & Economic Development [HCR151 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HCR151-Introduced.html
| 86R24009 CLE-D | ||
| By: Reynolds | H.C.R. No. 151 | |
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| WHEREAS, Congress first addressed the issue of unequal pay in | ||
| 1963 by passing the Equal Pay Act as an amendment to the Fair Labor | ||
| Standards Act of 1938; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, equal pay for | ||
| equal work is a fair labor standard alongside minimum wages, | ||
| overtime pay, and the protection of child laborers; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Unfortunately, weaknesses in the equal pay | ||
| provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act have made the act | ||
| ineffective in preventing gender-based wage discrimination; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Notably, the act does not make an employer who | ||
| violates the equal pay provisions of the act liable for | ||
| compensatory or punitive damages; such limitations on civil | ||
| penalties in the act deprive women subjected to wage discrimination | ||
| of full relief and substantially limit the deterrent effect of the | ||
| act; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Equally problematic is a loophole in the act that | ||
| allows an employer to justify unequal pay if the pay disparity is | ||
| based on "any factor other than sex"; courts have found that such a | ||
| factor need not be related to the job position or even | ||
| business-related; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Moreover, the act does not prevent an employer from | ||
| using the wage or salary history of a prospective employee to make | ||
| hiring and compensation decisions about the prospective employee | ||
| and does not protect employees who talk about salary information in | ||
| the workplace; and | ||
| WHEREAS, To address these and other barriers to achieving pay | ||
| parity, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7, the | ||
| Paycheck Fairness Act, on March 27; the bill was read for the second | ||
| time in the U.S. Senate on April 3; and | ||
| WHEREAS, H.R. 7 protects the rights of employees to discuss | ||
| and disclose wage information in the workplace, prevents employers | ||
| from relying on a prospective employee's wage or salary history in | ||
| employment decisions, requires employers to provide job-related | ||
| reasons for a difference in wages, and makes uncapped compensatory | ||
| and punitive damages available in a civil suit brought by a victim | ||
| of pay discrimination or by the secretary of labor; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In addition, H.R. 7 authorizes the secretary of | ||
| labor to establish a grant program to provide training on | ||
| negotiation skills and requires the secretary to conduct studies | ||
| and provide information to employers, labor organizations, and the | ||
| public on ways to eliminate pay disparities; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Testimony before the House Committee on Education | ||
| and Labor showed that many women in the private and government | ||
| sectors continue to earn significantly lower pay than men for equal | ||
| work, and passing H.R. 7 would help to effectively eradicate such | ||
| pay disparities; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass H.R. 7, | ||
| the Paycheck Fairness Act; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
| Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
| members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
| this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
