Senate Republicans block bill targeting gender pay gap - POLITICO

The Paycheck Fairness Act would require employers to demonstrate that any gap in pay between a man and a woman was due to job performance rather than gender.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would require employers to demonstrate that any gap in pay between a man and a woman was due to job performance rather than gender.

Another provision would authorize the creation of a grant program that would train women on salary negotiations and require public education regarding wage discrimination, among other things.

“We're hearing about how women are not returning to the market right now because of a number of reasons, including that they just aren't getting paid enough to pay for child care and the other challenges they have,” Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the bill’s Senate sponsor, told POLITICO.

The bill would be “exploiting the cause of pay fairness to send a windfall to trial lawyers,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday.

“The economic crisis that we are starting to come out of due to the pandemic has really hurt working women, especially women of color, and [the Paycheck Fairness Act] will really help women today as they try to recover from this pandemic, get back in the workforce and make sure that they are getting equal pay,” Murray said.

The bill doesn’t have a single GOP sponsor in the Senate.

“Senate Republicans’ decision to block the Paycheck Fairness Act is an insult to the millions of women who are doing the same job as their male counterparts for lower pay,” House Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said

But former Senate HELP Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) objected to the request, stalling the bill

“The first vote I took in the Senate was for paycheck fairness, and it is far past time for these inequalities to be addressed,” moderate Sen