HB295 Alabama 2016 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Adline Clarke Representative

Democrat

Session

Regular Session 2016

Title

Discrimination in wages, prohib., retaliation against employee who brings charge of wage discrimination, prohib., penalties

Description

Existing federal law requires employers to pay men and women equally for doing the same work.

This bill would prohibit an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than those paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, as specified.

This bill would allow the employer to affirmatively demonstrate that a wage differential is based upon one or more specified factors, including a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a bona fide factor other than sex, as specified.

This bill would also require the employer to demonstrate that each factor relied upon is applied reasonably and that the one or more factors relied upon account for the entire differential.

This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against, any employee by reason of any action taken by the employee to invoke or assist in any manner the enforcement of these provisions.

This bill would allow an employee who has been discharged, discriminated against, or retaliated against because of wage inequality to file a complaint with the Alabama Department of Labor and to provide the procedure for an investigation of the complaint.

This bill would require the department to enforce its provisions.

This bill would provide that an employer may not prohibit an employee from disclosing the employee's own wages, discussing the wages of others, inquiring about another employee's wages, or aiding or encouraging any other employee to exercise his or her rights under these provisions.

This bill would require an employer to maintain a record of wages paid to his or her employee for a certain amount of time.

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Subjects

Business and Labor