Within the 2022 State of the Union deal with, President Biden urged Congress to move the Paycheck Equity Act, paid household and medical depart laws, and lift the minimal wage. The White Home launched a Reality Sheet offering additional particulars.
Paycheck Equity Act
Within the White Home Reality Sheet, Biden notes that the Paycheck Equity Act (H.R. 7) is a vital step “in the direction of the aim of ending pay discrimination.” The laws seeks to restrict an employer’s protection in wage discrimination claims to solely bona fide job-related elements, enhance civil penalties for equal pay violations, and prohibit employers from requiring staff to signal a contract or waiver that doesn’t allow the disclosure of worker’s wages. The laws additionally requires the Equal Employment Alternative Fee to difficulty laws for the gathering of compensation and different knowledge corresponding to intercourse, fee, and nationwide origin of staff from employers to implement pay discrimination legal guidelines. The Act was handed within the Home of Representatives on April 15, 2021 and didn’t advance within the Senate on June 11, 2021
$15 Minimal Wage
In his deal with, President Biden urged Congress to extend the present federal minimal wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour. Biden has lengthy advocated a rise within the federal minimal wage. Within the Reality Sheet, Biden additional known as for Congress to remove the tip credit score and require employers that make use of tipped employees to pay the federal minimal wage. Lastly, Biden asks Congress to abolish the subminimum wage that allows a decrease wage to be paid to individuals with disabilities. A number of states have already repealed state subminimum wage statutes. The Reality Sheet factors out that President Biden elevated the minimal wage to $15 per hour (see Government Order No. 14026) for 370,000 federal staff and staff of federal contractors.
The Increase the Wage Act of 2021 (H.R. 603), launched January 26, 2021, sought to extend the minimal wage over 5 years till it reached $15 per hour. A bid to incorporate it within the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) failed and the invoice has since stalled.
Paid Household and Medical Go away
The Reality Sheet notes that 90% of the bottom wage employees don’t have any entry to paid household depart. In his deal with, President Biden urged Congress to move complete paid household medical depart (PFML) laws. The Construct Again Higher (BBB) Act contained a provision establishing common paid household and medical depart, nevertheless, the BBB stays in limbo, and the PFML provision was hotly contested and faraway from the Senate model of the invoice and made its technique to the Home-passed model of the invoice.
