March 26, 2025

On Equal Pay Day, Duckworth, Durbin Join Senate Democrats in Reintroducing the Paycheck Fairness Act to Help End Wage Discrimination, Close Gender Pay Gap

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] – On Equal Pay Day yesterday, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) along with the entire Senate Democratic caucus in reintroducing the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation to combat pay discrimination and help close the gender pay gap by strengthening the Equal Pay Act of 1963, ending the practice of pay secrecy and strengthening available remedies to help ensure wronged employees can challenge pay discrimination and hold employers accountable. U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) led the reintroduction of the Paycheck Fairness Act in the House.

“Every single day, women across our nation contribute so much to the success of their families, their communities and their country—and yet, women continue to make hundreds of thousands of dollars less over the course of their lifetimes due to pay disparities,” said Senator Duckworth. “When women are held back, our economy is held back. If Donald Trump and Republicans really wanted to make America great, they’d support the Paycheck Fairness Act to help our nation finally ensure equal pay for equal work.”

“More than fifteen years after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed, women are still facing pay inequality.  And for women of color, that pay gap is even wider,” said Senator Durbin.  “I’m joining my colleagues in introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act to send a clear message – women should receive equal pay for equal work.”

More than five decades after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the gender wage gap still exists—and alarmingly, for the first time in 20 years, the gender pay gap widened in 2023. Across all workers in the United States, women were typically paid 75 cents for every dollar paid to a man in 2023, adding up to a $14,170 pay difference in a year. U.S. women overall lost $1.7 trillion in earnings overall in 2023, according to a recent analysis by the National Partnership for Women & Families.  

The Paycheck Fairness Act would help:

  • Require employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons. In doing so, it ensures that employers who try to justify paying a man more than a woman for the same job must show the disparity is not sex-based, but job-related and necessary.
  • Ban retaliation against workers who discuss their wages.
  • Remove obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate participation in class action lawsuits that challenge systemic pay discrimination, by allowing workers to opt-out, rather than requiring them to opt-in.
  • Improve the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) and Department of Labor’s (DOL) tools for enforcing the Equal Pay Act. To help these enforcement agencies better uncover and remedy wage discrimination, the bill will require the collection of compensation data from certain employers, including federal contractors.
  • Provide assistance to all businesses to help them with their equal pay practices, recognize excellence in pay practices by businesses, and empower women and girls by creating a negotiation skills training program.
  • Prohibit employers from relying on and seeking the salary history of prospective employees.

The full text of the Paycheck Fairness Act is available on the Senator’s website. 

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