Florida needs equal pay for equal work

There is nothing more important than family. When most Americans think about what they want for their families, they think about things like brighter futures for their kids, putting food on the table, a secure retirement for their parents, and being home in time to have a family meal. When I think about what I want for my family, I also think about opportunities to succeed. And those opportunities shouldn’t be any different for the young women in my family than the young men.

That’s why I’m proposing House Bill 393

(the Helen Gordon Davis Fair Pay Protection Act), which would ensure that no woman in Florida is paid less because she is a woman. It’s long past time for women to get paid the same as men for the work they do. Paying women equally is good for the economy and good for business. In the state of Florida, women earn 87 cents for every dollar a man earns. That gap is on top of the already low average income all employees in our state earn, meaning too many families are struggling to earn a good life. At the current rate, the young women in our state will not achieve pay equity until 2038. Waiting one day to earn the pay you deserve is too long; 20 years is a travesty.

Pay inequity isn’t just a women’s issue; it is a family issue that has real consequences. Recent research from the Center for American Progress found that women are the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in 50 percent of households with children. That means when women earn less than they deserve, more families live in poverty and our whole state’s economy suffers. When pay is taken from women, families struggle to buy a first home, save for their children’s college education, or prepare for a secure retirement. That’s a serious problem, but it’s a problem with a solution.

HB 393 would make it a clear violation of the law for an employer to pay an employee less based solely on gender. The legislation would also ensure job applicants are not paid less based on prior salary history, protect employees’ ability to discuss wages, and prohibit employers from assigning an employee to a specific career track that would be unlikely to lead to a promotion on the basis of gender. These are important steps to ensure women have the opportunity to advance their careers and earn the pay they deserve.

Over the last year, President Trump and conservatives across the country have launched an aggressive effort to strip health care from millions of Americans and showered the wealthy and big corporations with tax cuts that line the pockets of the wealthy few on the backs of working families.

Meanwhile, Floridians are seeking real solutions to the problems that matter most: incomes aren’t rising, housing costs are going up, and families are struggling to make ends meet. Clearly, we can’t wait for Congress or the president to stand up for the middle class, so it’s up to us in the state legislature to advance solutions such as the Fair Pay Protection Act to build an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few, where our families and communities can thrive.