March 26, 2019

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative,

On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to vote against the ill-advised H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to require companies to show any pay disparities between men and women in its workforce.

Under H.R. 7, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would collect employee data from every U.S. employer. These companies would be required to provide not only basic compensation information, but also proprietary information to the federal government.

H.R. 7 would also make it easier for workers to sue companies over allegations of pay inequality, which will lead to unnecessary lawsuits. This would have a chilling effect on private sector productivity as businesses would have to operate under a constant fear of legal retribution for making ordinary decisions about employee compensation.

Though well-meaning, H.R. 7 would not fix pay disparities between men and women in the U.S. workforce, but it would subject all businesses to unnecessary and intrusive data mining and human resource justifications. Moreover, the Paycheck Fairness Act is unnecessary, since gender discrimination is already illegal. Again, I urge you to vote no on H.R. 7.

If you have any questions, please contact CCAGW Director of Government Affairs Allen Johnson at allen@cagw.org. All votes on H.R. 7 will be among those considered for CCAGW’s 2019 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW

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