House and Senate bills aim to reform state’s equal pay law

HARRISBURG — Calls to reform Pennsylvania’s equal pay law are coming from lawmakers in the state House and Senate, and will be heard during a rally in Harrisburg on Monday.

Remaining unchanged since 1959, the law aims to ensure fair and equal wages for workers performing similar duties, but reform advocates say updates are needed to protect the rights of both male and female employees.

State Reps. Tina Davis, D-Bucks, and Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, are among the co-sponsors of House Bill 850, which broadens the definitions of the terms “employee” and “wages” to include additional terms of employment and forms of benefits.

The updates, according to supporters, will help close gender pay gaps that, on average, see women in Pennsylvania earning about 80 percent of the salaries taken home by men in equivalent jobs.

Davis, during a recent phone interview, said she continues to be frustrated to see women doing the same job as men with the same education and background earning less.

“If you really look at the economics of it, the money that would be placed back into the economy [if the wage gap is closed] would end so much of the poverty I still see in Lower Bucks County,” Davis said.

The legislator says she is supporting state Sens. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks, and Maria Collett, D-Montgomery, who are seeking co-sponsors before introducing a bill in the Senate that mirrors the House proposal. The senators also are backing Senate Bill 504, introduced Wednesday and awaiting review by the Senate Committee on Industry and Labor. That legislation calls for many of the same updates to the equal pay law but lacks some of the teeth included in the House bill, particularly regarding collection of unpaid wages.

If HB 850 were to become law, an employee would no longer be at risk of retaliation from his or her employer for inquiring about or discussing their own wages or the wages earned by others.

Further, when an employer is found to have violated the law, the employee would be entitled to “the difference between the amount of wages paid and the maximum wage paid any other employee for equal work,” as well as compensatory damages, reasonable attorney fees and punitive damages if the violation is found to be intentional or committed recklessly.

The thinking behind this provision, Santarsiero said when reached by phone Friday, “is to make sure there is some stick to make sure employers actually comply with the law.”

Santarsiero says reforms to the law are “first and foremost about fundamental fairness” and erasing the disparity that exists between wages earned by men and women.

Beyond that, he said the updates will, in some cases, lift people out of poverty while leading to more money pumped back into the economy through spending and investment.

Sims called Pennsylvania’s wage system “broken,” and said it discourages workers “from standing up and speaking out” due to fear of losing their job.

The state attorney general would be authorized to take legal action against an employer in seeking to collect unpaid wages from one or more workers, if the bill becomes law.

“The time for change is overdue,” Collett said in a statement, noting that Pennsylvania lags behind other states in protecting the earning rights of female workers, especially minorities.

Lawmakers in both chambers have solicited support from advocacy groups including the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition, Women’s Law Project and the Pennsylvania Commission for Women with representatives from several groups slated to speak during Monday’s rally in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.

House Bill 850 was referred to the House Committee on Labor and Industry on April 2.