The House has sent a bill to address the differences in pay for women and men holding similar jobs to the Senate.
House's Democrats and a handful of Republicans provided a 55-43 victory Wednesday for Mercer Island Democratic Rep. Tana Senn’s bill, which requires employers to provide valid reasons — such as differences in education, training or experience — if employees challenge pay disparities between workers of the opposite sex for essentially the same work.
The bill would also allow gender-based pay disputes to be taken to an administrative judge at the Washington Department of Labor & Industries. It would also forbid employers from ordering workers not to disclose their salaries, and would forbid ordering employees from sharing pay information with each other. Similar laws exist in close to 10 states around the country.
“We have an opportunity to significantly impact families all across Washington by insisting women earn what they deserve,” Senn said in a press release. “Thousands of families will benefit from our actions today and all it takes is giving women the same opportunity as everyone else.”
The news release cited a study by Claudia Goldin, a labor economist at Harvard University, that found after controlling for age, race, hours and education, women who are doctors and surgeons earn 71 percent of men’s wages. Female financial specialists earn 66 percent of men’s wages.
