Daily Labor Report

Reproduced with permission from Daily Labor Report, 234 DLR A-16, 12/05/2014. Copyright 2014 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com

Retaliation

D.C. Council Passes Bill Barring Retaliation

Against Workers Who Discuss Their Wages
he District of Columbia Council passed a bill Dec.
2 that would prohibit retaliation against employees
who discuss their wages with other workers.
The Wage Transparency Amendment Act (B20-757)
was sponsored by Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie
(D) and was approved by the council unanimously. The
bill now awaits the signature of Mayor Vincent Gray
(D). Representatives for the mayor didnt respond to a
request for comment Dec. 5, but a spokesman for
McDuffie told Bloomberg BNA the mayor previously
had expressed support for the measure.
The bill bars employers from requiring that an employee refrain from inquiring about, disclosing, comparing, or otherwise discussing the employees wages
or the wages of another employee.
Employers also wouldnt be permitted to discharge,
discipline interfere with, or otherwise retaliate against
an employee who inquires about, discloses, compares,
or otherwise discusses the employees wages or the
wages of another employee or is believed by the employer to have done so.
The measure provides an exception for workers, such
as human resources employees, who come across pay
information in the course of their job duties.

Civil Fines of $20,000 for Repeat Offenders. Employers

would face civil fines of $1,000 for a first violation,
$5,000 for a second violation, and $20,000 for each subsequent violation under the measure.

COPYRIGHT 2014 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC.

The bill addresses one of the contributing factors to

pay inequity in the District: a lack of transparency in
the workplace, McDuffie said in a Dec. 2 statement.
Although we have one of the smallest overall gaps,
with women earning 90 cents, on average, for every dollar earned by men, we rank 48th in the country for African American women, at 55 cents, and 43rd for Latinas, at 48 cents, he said. Now, employees will have
the protections they need to chip away at these gaps.
The language in the D.C. bill mirrors some provisions
of the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 2199), proposed federal legislation that has struggled to get off the ground.
Most recently, the bill failed to advance in the Senate on
a 52-40 procedural vote (178 DLR A-12, 9/15/14).
The D.C. bill is also similar to an executive order
signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year that
prohibits federal contractors from discriminating or retaliating against employees who discuss their pay (67
DLR AA-1, 4/8/14).
If signed by Gray, the measure would become effective following a 30-day congressional review period.

BY MICHAEL ROSE
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Rose in
Washington at mrose@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan
J. McGolrick at smcgolrick@bna.com
Text of the bill is available at http://op.bna.com/
dlrcases.nsf/r?Open=mroe-9rhtru.

ISSN 0418-2693