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Federal Legislative Action Alert
Please Email Your Senators to Oppose Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA)
YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED!Please e-mail your senators toOPPOSE S. 2199 (originally introduced as S. 84)because it would significantly restrict the way employers of all sizes compensate their employees.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on S.2199, the "Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA)," as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, April 9. If enacted, the bill would:
- significantly restrict the factors HR professionals can consider when determining how to compensate their employees, and
- erode employer defenses for legitimate pay disparities by requiring employers to prove that any difference in pay is the result of a business necessity, and to demonstrate why they didn’t adopt a plaintiff’s suggested “alternative remedy’’ that wouldn’t result in a pay gap
Please Take This Action:
Write your U.S. Senators using SHRM's Policy Action Center by following these steps:
- Log onto the SHRM’s Policy Action Center by clickingHERE
- Fill in the “Sender Information” including all required fields
- Please be sure to include your home mailing address
- Click “Send Message” at the bottom of the page. Your message will be sent to your Senators’ Washington, DC office.
HR professionals who manage compensation use their professional judgment to consider a number of legitimate factors in creating fair and equitable compensation systems. These include experience, merit, productivity, prior salary history and location. But the PFA would allow the Federal government to second-guess employer pay practices in three primary ways. The PFA would:
- Restrict employer flexibility in pay decisions – The PFA would effectively prohibit employers from using many legitimate factors to compensate their employees, including professional experience, education, shift differentials or hazardous work, as well as pay differentials based on local labor market rates.
- Require collection of employer wage data – The PFA would authorize the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor to collect compensation data from compensation managers.
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) originally introduced S. 84, the Paycheck Fairness Act, on January 23, 2013. This bill was reintroduced on April 1, with a new bill number, S. 2199 and will be considered on the Senate floor as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, April 9.
SHRM Position
SHRM supports the two federal laws that already protect employees from gender-based pay inequity: (1) Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and (2) the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA).
SHRM believes that compensation programs should be designed to ensure fair treatment of employees, but should be determined by the market and employer needs, not by the government. Instead, SHRM encourages organizations of all sizes to regularly perform compensation or job evaluation audits to ensure such systems do not discriminate based on gender in order to comply with current federal law.
SHRM believes the Paycheck Fairness Act would be an unnecessary expansion of the Equal Pay Act. By significantly restricting the factors used in setting compensation, the Paycheck Fairness Act would threaten the tools that HR professionals use to reward and retain their employees. The bill could lead to employers cutting back on incentive pay programs, because of the pay disparities between employees that would naturally result.
Should you have any questions regarding the Paycheck Fairness Act, please contactKelly Hastings, SHRM's Senior Government Relations Advisor at
If you encounter any problems with the advocacy site, please contactMeredith Nethercutt, SHRM's Senior Associate, Member Advocacy, at 703-535-6417.