I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4803
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit discrimination
in the payment of wages on account of sex, race, or national origin
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 20, 1994
Ms. NORTON (for herself, Mr. OWENS, Mr. TUCKER, Miss COLLINS of Michi-
gan, Mr. GONZALEZ, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. DELLUMS, Ms. EDDIE
BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. MCKINNEY, Ms. BROWN of Florida,
Mr. MINETA, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. HINCHEY, Mrs. SCHROEDER, Mr.
NADLER, Ms. MARGOLIES-MEZVINSKY, Mr. SERRANO, Mrs. MALONEY,
Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. MCCLOSKEY, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, and Mrs.
KENNELLY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit
discrimination in the payment of wages on account of
sex, race, or national origin and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND REFERENCE.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Fair Pay Act of 1994’’.
(b) REFERENCE.—Whenever in this Act an amend-
ment or repeal is expressed in terms of an amendment
to, or repeal of, a section or other provision, the reference
shall be considered to be made to a section or other provi-
sion of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Wage differentials exist between equivalent
jobs segregated by sex, race, and national origin in
Government employment and in industries engaged
in commerce or in the production of goods for com-
merce:
(2) The existence of such wage differentials—
(A) depresses wages and living standards
for employees necessary for their health and ef-
ficiency;
(B) prevents the maximum utilization of
the available labor resources;
(C) tends to cause labor disputes, thereby
burdening, affecting, and obstructing com-
merce;
(D) burdens commerce and the free flow of
goods in commerce; and
(E) constitutes an unfair method of com-
petition.
(3) Discrimination in hiring and promotion has
played a role in maintaining a segregated work
force.
(4) Many women and people of color work in
occupations dominated by individuals of their same
sex, race, and national origin.
(5) In its seminal 1981 report ‘‘Women, Work,
and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value’’ the
National Academy of Sciences Committee on Occu-
pation Classification and Analysis found that in
1970 jobs dominated by women were paid $27.50
less per year for each additional percentage point fe-
male than equivalent mixed and male-dominated
jobs.
(6) A General Accounting Office analysis of
wages in the civil service of the State of Washington
found that in 1985 of the 44 jobs studied that paid
less than the average of all equivalent jobs, approxi-
mately 39 percent were female-dominated and ap-
proximately 16 percent were male dominated.
(7) A study of wages in Minnesota using 1990
Decennial Census data found that 75 percent of the
wage differential between white and non-white work-
ers was unexplained and may be a result of discrimi-
nation.
(8) Section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938 prohibits discrimination in compensa-
tion for ‘‘equal work’’ on the basis of sex.
(9) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibits discrimination in compensation because of
race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. The
United States Supreme Court, in its decision in
County of Washington v. Gunther, 452 U.S. 161
(1981), held that title VII’s prohibition against dis-
crimination in compensation also applies to jobs
which do not constitute ‘‘equal work’’ as defined in
section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938. Decisions of lower courts, however, have dem-
onstrated that further clarification of existing legis-
lation is necessary in order effectively to carry out
the intent of Congress to implement the Supreme
Court’s holding in its Gunther decision.
(10) Artificial barriers to the elimination of dis-
crimination in compensation based upon sex, race,
and national origin continue to exist more than 3
decades after the passage of section 6(d) of the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the Civil Rights
Act of 1964.
SEC. 3. EQUAL PAY FOR EQUIVALENT JOBS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 6 (29 U.S.C. 206) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(g)(1)(A) No employer having employees subject to
any provisions of this section shall discriminate between
its employees on the basis of sex, race, or national origin
by paying wages to employees or groups of employees at
a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages
to employees or groups of employees of the opposite sex
or different race or national origin for work in equivalent
jobs, except where such payment is made pursuant to a
seniority system, a merit system, or a system which meas-
ures earnings by quantity or quality of production.
‘‘(B) An employer who is paying a wage rate differen-
tial in violation of subparagraph (A) shall not, in order
to comply with the provisions of such subparagraph, re-
duce the wage rate of any employee.
‘‘(2) No labor organization or its agents representing
employees of an employer having employees subject to any
provision of this section shall cause or attempt to cause
such an employer to discriminate against an employee in
violation of paragraph (1)(A).
‘‘(3) For purposes of administration and enforcement
of this subsection, any amounts owing to any employee
which have been withheld in violation of paragraph (1)(A)
tice made unlawful by section 6(g) or because such
individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or par-
ticipated in any manner in an investigation, proceed-
ing, or hearing under section 6(g); or
‘‘(7) to discharge or in any other manner dis-
criminate against, coerce, intimidate, threaten, or
interfere with any employee or any other person be-
cause the employee inquired about, disclosed, com-
pared, or otherwise discussed the employee’s wages
or the wages of any other employee, or because the
employee exercised, enjoyed, aided, or encouraged
any other person to exercise or enjoy any right
granted or protected by section 6(g).’’.
SEC. 5. REMEDIES.
Section 16 (29 U.S.C. 216) is amended—
(1) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(f) In any action brought under this section for vio-
lation of section 6(g), the court shall, in addition to any
other remedies awarded to the prevailing plaintiff or plain-
tiffs, allow expert fees as part of the costs. Any such action
may be maintained as a class action as provided by the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.’’;
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘section
15(a)(3)’’ each place it occurs and inserting ‘‘para-
graphs (3), (6), and (7) of section 15(a)’’; and
(3) in the fourth sentence of subsection (b), by
striking ‘‘No employees’’ and inserting ‘‘Except with
respect to class actions brought under subsection (f),
no employees’’.
SEC. 6. RECORDS.
Section 11(c) (29 U.S.C. 211(c)) is amended by in-
serting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(c)’’ and by adding at the end the
following:
‘‘(2)(A) Every employer subject to section 6(g) shall
preserve records which document and support the method,
system, calculations, and other bases used by the employer
in establishing, adjusting, and determining the wages paid
to the employees of the employer. Every employer subject
to section 6(g) shall preserve such records for such periods
of time and shall make such reports therefrom to the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as shall be
prescribed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-
mission by regulation or order as necessary or appropriate
for the enforcement of the provisions of section 6(g) or
any regulations promulgated thereunder.
‘‘(B) Every employer subject to section 6(g) shall file
annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Com-
mission a report signed by its president, treasurer, or cor-
responding principal officer containing information in
such detail as may be necessary accurately to disclose the
wage or salary rates paid to each classification, position,
job title, or other wage or salary group of employees em-
ployed by the employer, as well as the sex, race, and na-
tional origin of employees at each wage or salary level in
each classification, position, job title, or other wage or sal-
ary group. The report shall not list the name of any indi-
vidual employee.
‘‘(C) Every employer required to submit a report
under subparagraph (B) shall make available to all of its
employees the information required to be contained in
such report.
‘‘(D) The contents of the reports filed with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission pursuant to sub-
paragraph (B) shall be public information, and the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission may publish any
information and data which it obtains pursuant to the pro-
visions of subparagraph (B). The Equal Employment Op-
portunity Commission may use the information and data
for statistical and research purposes, and compile and
publish such studies, analyses, reports, and surveys based
thereon as it may deem appropriate.
‘‘(E) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion shall by regulation make reasonable provision for the
inspection and examination by any person of the informa-
tion and data contained in any report filed with it pursu-
ant to subparagraph (B).
‘‘(F) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion shall by regulation provide for the furnishing of copies
of reports filed with it pursuant to subparagraph (B) to
any person upon payment of a charge based upon the cost
of the service.
‘‘(G) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion shall issue rules and regulations prescribing the form
and content of reports required to be filed under subpara-
graph (B) and such other reasonable rules and regulations
as it may find necessary to prevent the circumvention or
evasion of such reporting requirements. In exercising its
authority under subparagraph (B), the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission may prescribe by general
rule simplified reports for employers for whom it finds
that by virtue of their size a detailed report would be un-
duly burdensome.’’.
SEC. 7. RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND TECHNICAL ASSIST-
ANCE PROGRAM; REPORT TO CONGRESS.
Section 4(d) (29 U.S.C. 204(d)) is amended by add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘(4) The Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion shall undertake studies and provide information and
technical assistance to employers, labor organizations, and
the general public concerning effective means available to
implement the provisions of section 6(g) prohibiting wage
discrimination between employees performing work in
equivalent jobs on the basis of sex, race, or national origin.
Such studies, information, and technical assistance shall
be based upon and include reference to the declared policy
of such section to eliminate such discrimination. In order
to achieve the purposes of such section, the Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission shall further carry on a
continuing program of research, education, and technical
assistance including—
‘‘(A) undertaking and promoting research with
the intent of developing means to expeditiously cor-
rect the conditions leading to section 6(g);
‘‘(B) publishing and otherwise making available
to employers, labor organizations, professional asso-
ciations, educational institutions, the various media
of communication, and the general public the find-
ings of studies and other materials for promoting
compliance with section 6(g);
‘‘(C) sponsoring and assisting State and com-
munity informational and educational programs; and
‘‘(D) providing technical assistance to employ-
ers, labor organizations, professional associations
and other interested persons on means of achieving
and maintaining compliance with the provisions of
section 6(g).
‘‘(5) The report submitted annually by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission to Congress pursu-
ant to paragraph (1) shall include a separate evaluation
and appraisal regarding the implementation of section
6(g).’’.
SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall take effect
upon the expiration of one year from the date of its enact-
ment.
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