Assemblymember Dodd’s Gender Pay Equity Bill Heads to Governor

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Bill Dodd’s (D-Napa) bill establishing the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act of 2015, passed the state legislature on Monday with bipartisan support. The bill now heads to Governor Jerry Brown who has one month to sign the legislation.

“The gender pay gap not only affects women, it also causes problems for our entire society. This legislation is an important step toward ensuring a stable future for California families,” Dodd said. “I’d like to thank my fellow legislators for their support in delivering this bill to the Governor for his signature.”

Assemblymember Dodd is part of a coalition of California legislators who’ve put the issue of gender pay equity on center stage in Sacramento through the introduction of several measures.  The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act will require companies that contract with the state to have policies in place to help ensure gender pay equity and to provide the state with data on employee income 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.

“The State of California spends billions of dollars annually on state contracts, and we need to ensure taxpayer money is going to companies that promote gender pay equity,” said Assemblymember Dodd. “The State of California should set the example for the nation. Hard working women and future generations, including my granddaughters, are counting on us to do the right thing.” 

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, experience and career field. The gender pay gap amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.

Last year, President Obama directed the U.S. Department of Labor to collect gender and race pay data from federal contractors to assist in eliminating the pay gap at the federal level. Dodd’s bill seeks to accomplish the same goal, while also requiring policies and procedures that will help contractors avoid unlawful pay disparities.

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