Lawmakers pass bill promoting pay equality on National Equal Pay Day

Despite opposition voiced by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Retail Association of Maine and Hospitality Maine, lawmakers overwhelmingly approved legislation sponsored by state Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth, to promote pay equality by discouraging employers from basing wages on an employee’s salary history.

The vote on LD 278, “An Act Regarding Pay Equality,” was 22-11 in the Senate and 86-54 in the House, according to a news release from the House Speaker’s Office.

LD 278 will now head to Gov. Janet Mills, who has 10 days to sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature.

As reported by Mainebiz in late February following the public hearing on the bill, business groups expressed concerns that it would "encourage litigation, and thus additional costs for employers both large and small that may become inadvertently caught up by it."

Here's what's in the bill

According to the summary of the amended bill that appears on the Legislature’s website, the bill:

Prohibits an employer from inquiring about a prospective employee's compensation history until after an offer of employment that includes all terms of compensation has been negotiated and made to the prospective employee.
Creates an exception for compensation history sought according to any federal or state law that specifically requires the disclosure or verification of compensation history for employment purposes, for example, when such information is related to economic development programs that specifically create employment opportunities for persons with low incomes.
Creates a penalty for an employer that violates this provision, noting that violators would be subject “to a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500 per violation” and also would be subject “to a civil action that may be brought by or on behalf of an affected employee or applicant by the Department of Labor or the affected employee or applicant.”

The amended also amends the Maine Human Rights Act “to provide that evidence of unlawful employment discrimination includes an employer's seeking information about a prospective employee's compensation history before an offer of employment, including all terms of compensation, to the applicant has been made. It also creates an exception for compensation history sought pursuant to any federal or state law that specifically requires the disclosure or verification of compensation history for employment purposes.”

National Equal Pay Day

Action on Breen’s bill coincided with National Equal Pay Day on Tuesday, which represents the date when the median wage for American women will have caught up with the median wage for American men from the previous year. In the United States, the average woman has to work 15 months to earn what the average man earned in 2018 for 12 months of work

The National Partnership for Women and Families reported that nationally, the median annual pay for a woman who holds a full-time, year-round job is $41,977 while the median annual pay for a man who holds a full-time, year-round job is $52,146.

“This means that, overall, women in the United States are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to an annual gender wage gap of $10,169,” the organization stated in a news release. http://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/workplace/fair-pay/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf “This persistent, pervasive wage gap is driven in part by gender and racial discrimination, workplace harassment, job segregation and a lack of workplace policies that support family caregiving, which is still most often performed by women.”

Maine ranks 36th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (with 51 = Best and 1 = Worst) in having a wage gap of 18 cents for women, according to the organization’s 2019 wage gap rankings. California and the District of Columbia have the lowest wage gap for women, at 11 cents, and Louisiana has the worst wage gap at 31 cents, National Partnership for Women and Families reported.

Maine Center for Economic Policy filtered the wage numbers by race to portray the date by which Maine women will have earned the equivalent to what white, non-Hispanic Maine men made last year. Here are the equal pay dates for Maine women by race or ethnicity, according to its analysis:

White, non-Hispanic women: April 13
Asian women: May 26
American Indian women: Aug. 16
Black or African American women: Sept. 1
Hispanic women: Sept. 7.

“Despite significant advances in civil rights, women still face economic inequality across our nation and here in Maine – non-white women even more so,” MECEP Executive Director Garrett Martin said in a news release. “Equal Pay Day is a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do to make sure all Maine people receive equal pay for their work.”

Breen agreed, saying: “Equal pay day is about recognizing women’s worth and paying women what they deserve. Each year that passes by, the wage gap continues to hurt Maine women, children, and our economy. By encouraging employers to base salaries on market rates, skill, experience, educational background, or prior job performance, we can reverse this trend, promote fair wages and save tax dollars in the long-run.”

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America's Women and the Wage Gap 2019 report