SACRAMENTO — As the gender pay gap persists, State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson’s (D-Santa Barbara)’s legislation to require California’s larger employers to report salary data to the state passed off the Senate Floor today on a 27 to 9 vote. The bill now moves to the Assembly.
Senate Bill 171 would require California employers with 100 or more employees to submit a pay data report annually to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, outlining compensation and hours worked of its employees by gender, race, ethnicity and job category.
The bill is modeled after a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission effort to collect pay data by race and gender instituted under the Obama Administration that was later halted by the Trump Administration. A federal judge recently ordered the Trump Administration to reinstate this rule.
“Women are almost half the workforce. They represent the sole breadwinners in half of American families. The gender pay gap not only punishes women, it hurts children, families, and our economy,” said Senator Jackson. “Many employers are unaware of their own pay disparities. SB 171 will help California employers examine their pay practices and take action to compensate their workers fairly as well as improve their hiring practices.”
The bill would permit state agencies to identify patterns of wage disparities and better enforce wage discrimination laws, when appropriate. It would also encourage employers to analyze and self-correct their own pay practices in the process, while ensuring privacy by requiring that individually identifiable information be protected and not available to the general public.
Despite significant progress made in California in recent years, including the enactment in 2016 of SB 358 (Jackson), the California Fair Pay Act, the gender pay gap remains, resulting in an estimated $78.6 billion in lost wages for women each year in California.
When pay disparities go undetected, it becomes even more difficult to close the wage gap. In fact, many employers themselves are unaware of discrepancies in their own companies. A recent Harvard Business Review report found that the gender pay gap narrowed significantly at companies required to disclose their gender pay disparities. The report also found it increased the number of women being hired and promoted.
Jackson represents the 19th Senate District, which includes all of Santa Barbara County and western Ventura County.