I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1362
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
APRIL 3, 2001
Ms. NORTON (for herself and Mr. ABERCROMBIE) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
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 2001’’.
(b) REFERENCE.—Except as provided in section 8,
whenever in this Act an amendment 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 provision of the Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.).
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Wage rate differentials exist between equiv-
alent jobs segregated by sex, race, and national ori-
gin in Government employment and in industries en-
gaged in commerce or in the production of goods for
commerce.
(2) 
The 
existence 
of 
such 
wage 
rate
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)(A) A General Accounting Office analysis of
wage rates in the civil service of the State of Wash-
ington found that in 1985, of the 44 jobs studied
that paid less than the average of all equivalent jobs,
approximately 39 percent were female-dominated
and approximately 16 percent were male dominated.
(B) A study of wage rates in Minnesota using
1990 Decennial Census data found that 75 percent
of the wage rate differential between white and
nonwhite workers was unexplained and may be a re-
sult of discrimination.
(6) Section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(d)) prohibits discrimi-
nation in compensation for ‘‘equal work’’ on the
basis of sex.
(7) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
(42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) prohibits discrimination in
compensation because of race, color, religion, na-
tional origin, and sex. The Supreme Court, in its de-
cision in County of Washington v. Gunther, 452
U.S. 161 (1981), held that title VII’s prohibition
against discrimination in compensation also applies
to jobs that do not constitute ‘‘equal work’’ as de-
fined in section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206(d)). Decisions of lower
courts, however, have demonstrated that further
clarification of existing legislation is necessary in
order effectively to carry out the intent of Congress
to implement the Supreme Court’s holding in its
Gunther decision.
(8) 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 (29 U.S.C. 206(d))
and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Elimination of
such 
barriers 
would 
have 
positive 
effects,
including—
(A) providing a solution to problems in the
economy created by discrimination through
wage rate differentials;
(B) substantially reducing the number of
working women and people of color earning low
wages, thereby reducing the dependence on pub-
lic assistance; and
(C) promoting stable families by enabling
working family members to earn a fair rate of
pay.
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:
‘‘(h)(1)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B),
no employer having employees subject to any provision of
this section shall discriminate, within any establishment
in which such employees are employed, between employees
on the basis of sex, race, or national origin by paying
wages to employees in such establishment in a job that
is dominated by employees of a particular sex, race, or
national origin at a rate less than the rate at which the
employer pays wages to employees in such establishment
in another job that is dominated by employees of the oppo-
site sex or of a different race or national origin, respec-
tively, for work on equivalent jobs.
‘‘(B) Nothing in subparagraph (A) shall prohibit the
payment of different wage rates to employees where such
payment is made pursuant to—
‘‘(i) a seniority system;
‘‘(ii) a merit system;