Laws push gender equality

Proposals to boost minimum wage, expand sex harassment training

“These initiatives will make Connecticut a fairer, more equitable state.” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy

HARTFORD — On International Women’s Day, the governor and lawmakers raised several proposed laws they hope will hike pay for women, protect them from harassment and help them care for family.

Legislators are considering bills that would increase the minimum wage, prevent employers from asking about a job candidate’s salary history, expand the state’s earned sick time law and make workplace sexual harassment training more widespread.

“Taken together, these initiatives will make Connecticut a fairer, more equitable state for all people, and it will make our state a better place to work,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a news conference Thursday. “Making Connecticut a stronger, fairer place to work will make our state a more attractive place to live, improve our workforce, and make our state more competitive.”

Legislators on both sides of the aisle testified their support for some of these bills Thursday before the Labor and Public Employees Committee.

House Republican Leader

Themis Klarides, R-Woodbridge, voiced her support for an equal pay bill forbidding employers to ask about salaries. She said equal pay was not a partisan issue, a sentiment reiterated by committee member Rep. Mike Bocchino, R-Greenwich.

Connecticut women are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to their male co-workers, according to the governor’s office. Women of color make even less. Hispanic women make 54

cents on the dollar paid to a white man, and AfricanAmerican women make 63 cents on that same dollar.

By preventing employers from asking how much job candidates made in their previous position, many who testified in the public hearing said they hope women can be unshackled from previously low salaries that prevent new employers from giving them more pay.

Lawmakers will also consider raising the state’s minimum wage from $10.10 an hour to $12 per hour in 2019, and $13.50 in 2020. Senate President Pro Tempore

Martin Looney, DNew Haven, pointed out in his testimony that the majority of people receiving minimum wage are single mothers in their 30s.

Legislators sought to raise the minimum last year, but could not get the votes to pass a bill.

“I think it would be a tremendous mistake not to raise the minimum wage two years in a row,” Malloy said.

In the public hearing, many lawmakers and constituents shared emotional stories of their struggles to care for sick family members or recover from illnesses

or accidents themselves under existing family and medical leave policies.

Lawmakers propose the creation of a Family and Medical Leave Insurance Trust Fund that Connecticut workers — in the private and public sectors — would pay .5 percent of their weekly earnings. That fund, administered by the Labor Department, could then issue twelve work weeks of family leave compensation to covered employees or a combination of family and medical leave compensation.

Finally, increasing sexual harassment training and

recourse awareness is the subject of a final bill under consideration by the Labor and Public Employees Committee.

The bill would require employers with three or more staff members to post information about the illegality of sexual harassment in a prominent workplace location and communicate it directly to employees annually. Employers with 15 or more employees would have to train all employees and supervisors with two cumulative hours of awareness and antiharassment compliance training.

The four bills received wide support from many legislators, advocates and Connecticut residents who testified.

The Connecticut Business Association opposed the bills citing the cost of implementing the requirements, and the measures’ inflexible nature.

The Labor and Public Employees Committee will vote on whether to advance these bills to the full General Assembly before March 22.