Pay antidiscrimination legislation fails, and gender wage gap persists

The main legislative vehicle for ending the gender pay gap failed to pass Congress during the Joe Biden presidency's final two years.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would have limited employers' legal defenses against gender-based pay-discrimination lawsuits to only "bona fide job-related factors." It would have further protected workers from retaliation when they complain about pay discrimination and it would have increased civil penalties for employers that breached the rules. Critics warned of widespread lawsuits against businesses if the act had passed. 

During the current Congress, neither the House or Senate versions of the Paycheck Fairness Act advanced, despite being co-sponsored by 220 House members and 51 senators. In the House, only one Republican co-sponsored the measure (Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick), and Republicans used their majority to prevent the bill from advancing. In the Senate, 60 senators would have been required to advance the measure to a floor vote.

Meanwhile, the gender wage gap, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, has remained stuck under Biden, with women earning about 84% of what men earn. A Pew Research Center study with a somewhat different methodology than the Census Bureau's found the gap at 82%, an improvement of just 2 percentage points compared with where the gap stood 20 years earlier. 

The Biden administration enacted some policies directed at the federal workforce, including an Office of Personnel Management rule requiring 80 federal agencies to stop considering nonfederal pay history when determining federal employees' salaries.

However, federal employees account for less than 2% of the overall workforce, so their reach is limited.

We rate this Promise Broken.