The Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Health, Edu­ca­tion, Labor, and Pen­sions will finally hold a hear­ing on the Pay­check Fair­ness Act (S.182) on March 11. As AAUW mem­bers are quite aware, the Pay­check Fair­ness Act is a much needed updated of the 46-year-old Equal Pay Act. This com­pre­hen­sive bill – which now has 37 Sen­ate cospon­sors – would cre­ate stronger incen­tives for employ­ers to fol­low the law, empower women to nego­ti­ate for equal pay, and strengthen fed­eral out­reach, edu­ca­tion and enforce­ment efforts. The bill would also deter wage dis­crim­i­na­tion by strength­en­ing penal­ties for equal pay vio­la­tions and by pro­hibit­ing retal­i­a­tion against work­ers who ask about employ­ers’ wage prac­tices or dis­close their own wages. In short, the bill updates the law to reflect the prac­tices and processes under more recent civil rights laws. Fol­low­ing the enact­ment of the Lilly Led­bet­ter Fair Pay Act last year, pass­ing the Pay­check Fair­ness Act is a log­i­cal next step for­ward in the fight for pay equity.

SB 182 was intro­duced in Jan­u­ary 2009 by then Sen­a­tor Hillary Clinton.

AAUW will be live blog­ging the hear­ing that day so even if you are work­ing you can fol­low along with the pro­ceed­ings on your com­puter or smart­phone. You can even sign up for a reminder for the live blog­ging event on the AAUW website.