I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5960 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to impose restrictions 

relating to prospective employees’ educational credentials, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 16, 2023 

Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI (for himself and Mr. JAMES) introduced the following 

bill 

OCTOBER 25, 2023 

Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to impose 

restrictions relating to prospective employees’ educational 

credentials, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Opportunity to Com5 pete Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS RELATING TO PROSPECTIVE EM2 PLOYEES’ EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS. 

3 The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 

4 201 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 7 the 

5 following new section: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 8. GUIDANCE RELATING TO EDUCATIONAL CREDEN7 TIALS. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 

9 (b), an employer may only use, in the consideration of pro10 spective employees for a position of employment, a com11 puterized hiring system if such system— 

12 ‘‘(1) discloses to the prospective employee the 

13 median years or expected years of experience re14 quired for a position, which may include experience 

15 received through military service, community college, 

16 training programs, and some college; and 

17 ‘‘(2) if the employer requires a bachelor’s de18 gree for the position, considers a prospective em19 ployee who has the required years of experience de20 scribed in paragraph (1) as meeting the degree re21 quirement. 

22 ‘‘(b) WAIVER OF REQUIREMENT.— 

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor 

24 shall provide an exemption to the requirements 

25 under paragraph (2) of subsection (a) with respect 

26 to certain positions of employment with an employer 


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1 if such employer demonstrates to the satisfaction of 

2 the Secretary that— 

3 ‘‘(A) the skills and knowledge required for 

4 such position of employment cannot reasonably 

5 be obtained without a bachelor’s degree; and 

6 ‘‘(B) the employer discloses the require7 ment of a bachelor’s degree to all prospective 

8 employees in a timely manner. 

9 ‘‘(2) APPLICATION FOR EXEMPTION.—An em10 ployer seeking an exemption under this subsection 

11 shall submit an application for such exemption to 

12 the Secretary of Labor at such time and in such 

13 manner as the Secretary may require. 

14 ‘‘(3) TIMELINE FOR EXEMPTION APPLICA15 TION.—The Secretary of Labor shall— 

16 ‘‘(A) not later than 7 days after receiving 

17 an application for an exemption, notify the em18 ployer submitting such application that the Sec19 retary of Labor has received their application; 

20 and 

21 ‘‘(B) not later than 14 days after receiving 

22 such an application, notify such employer 

23 whether the application has been accepted or 

24 denied. 


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1 ‘‘(c) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYERS.—An 

2 employer that employs less than 500 employees shall not 

3 be subject to the requirements of this section. 

4 ‘‘(d) ENFORCEMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 

5 the date of enactment of the Opportunity to Compete Act, 

6 the Secretary of Labor shall establish appropriate proce7 dures for the enforcement of this section. 

8 ‘‘(e) COMPUTERIZED HIRING SYSTEM DEFINED.— 

9 For the purposes of this section, the term ‘computerized 

10 hiring system’ means a recruitment management system, 

11 recruitment marketing system, applicant tracking system, 

12 or any other computer-based system that receives, man13 ages, tracks, evaluates, or responds to applications for em14 ployment.’’. 

Æ 


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