This session, the Oregon Legislature has introduced Fair Pay For All (House Bill 2005-A), which will help end persistent pay disparities faced by women, people of color, LBGTQ workers, workers with a disability and all other protected classes in Oregon. Women, on average, still make 80 cents for every dollar a man earns, African American women are paid 63 cents and Latinas are paid just 54 cents for every dollar a white man earns.
There are a lot of reasons women are paid less for equal work, these include: gender and sexuality discrimination, taking different job or career paths based on gendered expectations or limited options, racism, and penalties for having caregiving responsibilities.
If passed, this bill will make it so that employers can’t screen job applicants or determine pay based on a person’s past salary history (preventing past pay inequities from being continued over someone’s entire career!). It also ensures that if an employer has improperly paid an employee, that employee can collect back wages over the entire period they were underpaid. Finally, it requires that employees are actually paid equally for comparable work.
Learn more about equal pay at our sister website, Family Forward Oregon.