Dodd’s Legislation Demanding Equal Pay in State Contracting Moves Forward

SACRAMENTO, CA – A gender pay equity bill by Assemblymember Bill Dodd (D-Napa) recently took one step closer to becoming law after receiving unanimous bipartisan support from the Assembly Labor Committee. The legislation would ensure companies that do business with the state of California have fair compensation policies and practices that do not unlawfully differentiate between gender and race.

“As a society we need to ensure people aren’t paid less for doing the same job simply because of their gender or the color of their skin. The advancement of gender pay equity has been overlooked for too long,” said gender pay advocate, K. Patrice Williams, of Vallejo. “This legislation marks another step towards closing the gender pay gap in California. I’d like to thank Assemblymember Dodd for his effort in promoting this positive change.”

The gender pay gap amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime, and in 2013, the pay gap between men and women averaged nearly $11,000 annually in lost income. Full-time working women in the U.S. have continued to earn an average of just 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts over the last decade. The disparity is even greater for women of color, and numerous studies have found a gap persists even when controlling for factors like education and career field.

“The State of California spends billions of dollars annually on state contracts, and we need to ensure taxpayer money is only going to companies that follow our gender pay equity laws,” said Assemblymember Dodd. “We need to take a stand for what’s right and ensure everyone is on an equal playing field. I believe we owe that to future generations.”

Last year, Assemblymember Dodd co-authored the California Fair Pay Act of 2015, which was signed by Governor Brown to create the strongest equal pay laws in the nation. Hoping to build of last year’s success, Assemblymember Dodd’s legislation would advance pay equity by ensuring those standards are actually followed by state contractors.

Dodd’s bill, The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, will require companies that contract with the state to have policies in place to help ensure compliance with the equal pay laws. Additionally, the bill would require contractors to provide the state with data on employee pay by gender and race. Collecting this data will help the state in appropriately targeting its efforts to reduce and eliminate the wage gap in California.

Assemblymember Bill Dodd represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo, Lake, and Colusa Counties. .