Republicans Block DeLauro Effort to End Pay Secrecy Among DHS Contractors

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) offered anamendment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill today thatwould ban retaliation against employees of DHS contractors or subcontractorswho disclose their salary information. It was gutted by a Republican majoritythat has steadfastly refused to address the realities of pay discrimination.Pay secrecy is a main reason why, fifty years after the Equal Pay Act,women are still only paid 77 cents on the dollar for the same job as men. Theamendment includes an exception for employees whose essential job functioninvolves wage information, like human resource employees.

"Unequal pay is not just a problem for women. When womenbring home smaller paychecks, it harms the entire family, when millions arealready struggling to get by. But in order to detect and combat paydiscrimination, employees must be able to share salary information with theircoworkers without fear of punishment.

"Banning retaliation for wage disclosure should be federalpolicy, and apply to all who do business with the federal government.Unfortunately my colleagues today chose not to give women the tools to combatpay discrimination. Fear of retaliation only exacerbates the many hurdles thatemployees face in knowing about wage discrimination. Just look at LillyLedbetter, who found out about decades of pay discrimination only because shegot an anonymous note.

"Nearly fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, it is time toend pay discrimination for good. Women across the country will not be fooled byanything less."

DeLauro, author of the Paycheck Fairness Act,is a longtime champion for equal pay and has called on the Administration toban all government contractors from penalizing employees who share theirsalary. Instead of allowing a vote on the DeLauro amendment, Republicans guttedher proposal with language that only restates existing law.