Today, Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22) joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) and 195 other Members of the House in introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act. This legislation will revise language related to the enforcement of sex discrimination in the workplace to include wage discrimination. Specifically, the Paycheck Fairness Act will require employers to prove that differences in pay are related only to performance and not gender. Furthermore, the bill will prohibit the punishment of employees for sharing salary information with coworkers and allow women to be awarded additional compensation for pay discrimination.

Current census data shows that women earn approximately 78 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn. Women, who compose nearly half of the American workforce, deserve to be compensated fairly and equally. If no action is taken, by the age of 65, the average working woman will have lost more than $43,000 over her working lifetime due to gender discrimination.

The text of H.R. 1869 is available here.