86R24009 CLE-D
 
  By: Reynolds H.C.R. No. 151
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, Congress first addressed the issue of unequal pay in
  1963 by passing the Equal Pay Act as an amendment to the Fair Labor
  Standards Act of 1938; and
         WHEREAS, Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, equal pay for
  equal work is a fair labor standard alongside minimum wages,
  overtime pay, and the protection of child laborers; and
         WHEREAS, Unfortunately, weaknesses in the equal pay
  provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act have made the act
  ineffective in preventing gender-based wage discrimination; and
         WHEREAS, Notably, the act does not make an employer who
  violates the equal pay provisions of the act liable for
  compensatory or punitive damages; such limitations on civil
  penalties in the act deprive women subjected to wage discrimination
  of full relief and substantially limit the deterrent effect of the
  act; and
         WHEREAS, Equally problematic is a loophole in the act that
  allows an employer to justify unequal pay if the pay disparity is
  based on "any factor other than sex"; courts have found that such a
  factor need not be related to the job position or even
  business-related; and
         WHEREAS, Moreover, the act does not prevent an employer from
  using the wage or salary history of a prospective employee to make
  hiring and compensation decisions about the prospective employee
  and does not protect employees who talk about salary information in
  the workplace; and
         WHEREAS, To address these and other barriers to achieving pay
  parity, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7, the
  Paycheck Fairness Act, on March 27; the bill was read for the second
  time in the U.S. Senate on April 3; and
         WHEREAS, H.R. 7 protects the rights of employees to discuss
  and disclose wage information in the workplace, prevents employers
  from relying on a prospective employee's wage or salary history in
  employment decisions, requires employers to provide job-related
  reasons for a difference in wages, and makes uncapped compensatory
  and punitive damages available in a civil suit brought by a victim
  of pay discrimination or by the secretary of labor; and
         WHEREAS, In addition, H.R. 7 authorizes the secretary of
  labor to establish a grant program to provide training on
  negotiation skills and requires the secretary to conduct studies
  and provide information to employers, labor organizations, and the
  public on ways to eliminate pay disparities; and
         WHEREAS, Testimony before the House Committee on Education
  and Labor showed that many women in the private and government
  sectors continue to earn significantly lower pay than men for equal
  work, and passing H.R. 7 would help to effectively eradicate such
  pay disparities; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to pass H.R. 7,
  the Paycheck Fairness Act; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
  the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
  Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
  members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
  this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
  memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.