On March 7 we sent an Action Alert asking you to contact your State Representative, expressing support for the pay equity bill, S.2119, and urging him/her to ask House Speaker DeLeo to move this bill to the floor for a vote. The Senate unanimously passed the pay equity bill in January, but it has been bottled up in the House Ways and Means Committee ever since.

The end of the legislative session on July 31 is rapidly approaching. There are still numerous steps before pay equity can become law that could take significantly more than the 2½ months remaining; none of these steps can be taken until the bill is voted out of Ways and Means.

Please contact your State Representative and ask him/her to contact House Speaker DeLeo and have this bill brought to the House floor for a vote now.  You could also thank your State Senator for supporting the bill and ask him/her to contact Speaker DeLeo as well. Contact information is here.

And please forward this Alert to all your Massachusetts friends and family and ask them to contact their Representatives.

The pay equity bill prohibits discrimination in any way on the basis of gender in payment of wages, including benefits or other compensation, for comparable work. This bill is needed because:

• Women in Massachusetts make up almost half the workforce, and women who work full time earn only 80.8% of what men who work full time earn.
• As of 2013, 40% of households with children under 18 include mothers who are sole or primary breadwinners for the family.
• The wage gap, magnified over the course of a lifetime, can have a serious impact on the economic security of women and ethnic workers.

For more details on the bill, see our testimony before the legislature here.

As legislators repeatedly tell us, phone calls and personal emails from constituents have a significant impact on their decisions on legislation. Please take a few minutes and help end the pay gap in Massachusetts.