Paycheck Fairness Act

Bill: 109-s-841
Sponsor: Sen. Clinton, Hillary Rodham [D-NY]
Introduced: 2005-04-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Labor and Employment
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Apprenticeship
Awards, medals, prizes
Business records
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Civil rights enforcement
Class actions (Civil procedure)
Commemorations
Commerce
Conferences
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Damages
Department of Education
Department of Labor
Disciplining of employees
Discrimination in employment
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Elementary and secondary education
Employee rights
Employee training
Employers' liability
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Evidence (Law)
Expert witnesses
Federal aid to education
Federal employees
Government Operations and Politics
Government and business
Government contractors
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Governmental investigations
Higher education
Labor statistics
Labor unions
Law
Legal fees
Pay equity
Personnel records
Position classification
Punitive damages
Sex discrimination
Supervisors
Surveys
Vocational and technical education
Wage surveys
Wages
Whistle blowing
Women
Women's education
Women's employment

Summary:
action_date: 2005-04-19
text: 
Paycheck Fairness Act - Amends the portion of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) known as the Equal Pay Act to revise remedies for and enforcement of prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages to: (1) add nonretaliation requirements; (2) increase penalties; and (3) authorize the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) to seek additional compensatory or punitive damages.
 
Requires the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to train EEOC employees and affected individuals and entities on matters involving wage discrimination. 
Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to eligible entities for negotiation skills training programs for girls and women. Directs the Secretaries of Labor and Education to issue regulations or policy guidance to integrate such training into certain programs under their Departments. 
Directs the Secretary to provide for certain studies, information, national summit, and guidelines, awards, and assistance for employer evaluations of job categories based on objective criteria.
Establishes the Secretary of Labor's National Award for Pay Equity in the Workplace. 
Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require the EEOC to collect certain pay information. 
Directs: (1) the Commissioner of Labor Statistics to collect data on woman workers in the Current Employment Statistics survey; (2) the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to use specified types of methods in investigating compensation discrimination and in enforcing pay equity; and (3) the Secretary to make accurate information on compensation discrimination readily available to the public.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2005-04-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2005-04-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3900-3901)
action_date: 2005-04-19
text: Introduced in Senate