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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Opportunity to Com-
pete Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS RELATING TO PROSPECTIVE EM-
PLOYEES’ EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS. 
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
201 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 7 the 
following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 8. GUIDANCE RELATING TO EDUCATIONAL CREDEN-
TIALS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 
(b), an employer may only use, in the consideration of pro-
spective employees for a position of employment, a com-
puterized hiring system if such system— 
‘‘(1) discloses to the prospective employee the 
median years or expected years of experience re-
quired for a position, which may include experience 
received through military service, community college, 
training programs, and some college; and 
‘‘(2) if the employer requires a bachelor’s de-
gree for the position, considers a prospective em-
ployee who has the required years of experience de-
scribed in paragraph (1) as meeting the degree re-
quirement. 
‘‘(b) WAIVER OF REQUIREMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor 
shall provide an exemption to the requirements 
under paragraph (2) of subsection (a) with respect 
to certain positions of employment with an employer 
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if such employer demonstrates to the satisfaction of 
the Secretary that— 
‘‘(A) the skills and knowledge required for 
such position of employment cannot reasonably 
be obtained without a bachelor’s degree; and 
‘‘(B) the employer discloses the require-
ment of a bachelor’s degree to all prospective 
employees in a timely manner. 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION FOR EXEMPTION.—An em-
ployer seeking an exemption under this subsection 
shall submit an application for such exemption to 
the Secretary of Labor at such time and in such 
manner as the Secretary may require. 
‘‘(3) TIMELINE
FOR
EXEMPTION
APPLICA-
TION.—The Secretary of Labor shall— 
‘‘(A) not later than 7 days after receiving 
an application for an exemption, notify the em-
ployer submitting such application that the Sec-
retary of Labor has received their application; 
and 
‘‘(B) not later than 14 days after receiving 
such an application, notify such employer 
whether the application has been accepted or 
denied. 
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‘‘(c) EXEMPTION
FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYERS.—An 
employer that employs less than 500 employees shall not 
be subject to the requirements of this section. 
‘‘(d) ENFORCEMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of the Opportunity to Compete Act, 
the Secretary of Labor shall establish appropriate proce-
dures for the enforcement of this section. 
‘‘(e) COMPUTERIZED HIRING SYSTEM DEFINED.— 
For the purposes of this section, the term ‘computerized 
hiring system’ means a recruitment management system, 
recruitment marketing system, applicant tracking system, 
or any other computer-based system that receives, man-
ages, tracks, evaluates, or responds to applications for em-
ployment.’’. 
Æ 
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