There are currently two bills pending in Congress that want to close the holes in wage discrimination laws for people that are undervalued either because they are women or because they are part of a racial or ethnic group: the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. Existing Laws do not address the problem of unequal pay for equivalent work in different jobs, which The Fair Pay Act tries to do. - The Fair Pay Act ¿ seeks to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). It seeks to make it possible to compare jobs predominately held by women or minorities to jobs predominately held by men by establishing equal pay between equivalent jobs. Equivalent value to the employer should merit equal pay. It has exceptions for different wages based on merit, seniority, quantity or quality.
- The Paycheck Fairness Act ¿ also seeks to amend the FLSA and to strengthen the Equal Pay Act. This bill expands damages than can be sought under the Equal Pay Act by adding compensatory and punitive damages. Under the Paycheck Fairness Act, an employer cannot, as before, just show that a higher salary is based on higher merits, but that the merit is job-related to the position and the business needs of the company.
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