I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1600 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit certain practices 
by employers relating to restrictions on discussion of employees’ and 
prospective employees’ salary and benefit history, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 14, 2023 
Ms. NORTON 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 
certain practices by employers relating to restrictions 
on discussion of employees’ and prospective employees’ 
salary and benefit history, 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 ‘‘Pay Equity for All 
Act of 2023’’. 
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITIONS RELATING TO PROSPECTIVE EM-
PLOYEES’ SALARY AND BENEFIT HISTORY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—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. REQUIREMENTS AND PROHIBITIONS RELATING TO 
WAGE, SALARY, AND BENEFIT HISTORY. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—It shall be an unlawful practice 
for an employer to— 
‘‘(1) rely on the wage history of a prospective 
employee in considering the prospective employee for 
employment, including requiring that a prospective 
employee’s prior wages satisfy minimum or max-
imum criteria as a condition of being considered for 
employment; 
‘‘(2) rely on the wage history of a prospective 
employee in determining the wages for such prospec-
tive employee, except that an employer may rely on 
wage history if it is voluntarily provided by a pro-
spective employee, after the employer makes an offer 
of employment with an offer of compensation to the 
prospective employee, to support a wage higher than 
the wage offered by the employer; 
‘‘(3) seek from a prospective employee or any 
current or former employer the wage history of the 
prospective employee, except that an employer may 
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seek to confirm prior wage information only after an 
offer of employment with compensation has been 
made to the prospective employee and the prospec-
tive employee responds to the offer by providing 
prior wage information to support a wage higher 
than that offered by the employer; or 
‘‘(4) discharge or in any other manner retaliate 
against any employee or prospective employee be-
cause the employee or prospective employee— 
‘‘(A) opposed any act or practice made un-
lawful by this section; or 
‘‘(B) took an action for which discrimina-
tion is forbidden under section 15(a)(3). 
‘‘(b) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘wage 
history’ means the wages paid to the prospective employee 
by the prospective employee’s current employer or previous 
employer.’’. 
(b) PENALTIES.—Section 16 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 
216) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection: 
‘‘(f)(1) Any person who violates the provisions of sec-
tion 8 shall— 
‘‘(A) be subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 for 
a first offense, increased by an additional $1,000 for 
each subsequent offense, not to exceed $10,000; and 
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‘‘(B) be liable to each employee or prospective 
employee who was the subject of the violation for 
special damages not to exceed $10,000 plus attor-
neys’ fees, and shall be subject to such injunctive re-
lief as may be appropriate. 
‘‘(2) An action to recover the liability described in 
paragraph (1)(B) may be maintained against any em-
ployer (including a public agency) in any Federal or State 
court of competent jurisdiction by any one or more em-
ployees or prospective employees for and on behalf of— 
‘‘(A) the employees or prospective employees; 
and 
‘‘(B) other employees or prospective employees 
similarly situated.’’. 
Æ 
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