Legislation aims to bridge wage gap

Citing studies ranking Montana’s women near the bottom of nationwide wage earnings compared to men, a Missoula lawmaker on Tuesday presented legislation she said would help bridge the state’s wage gap.

According to a 2015 report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Montana’s average wages for women working full-time, year-round jobs paid just 75 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned. The report ranked the state 45th in the nation for women’s employment and earnings.

Sen. Sue Malek, D-Missoula, is sponsoring House Bill 148, also called the Montana Pay Equity Act.

“It not only affects you through your work life, but also when you retire, your retirement pay is not the same as your spouse or other men in the community,” Malek told the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee. “Women tend to live longer, so now they’ve suffered throughout their career and now they’re going to suffer more in their retirement.”

Malek said the bill, which mirrors legislation passed last year in Massachusetts, would take several steps to address the wage disparity in the private sector. It would prohibit pay discrimination based on gender, while allowing variations in wage due to seniority, merit systems and commission-based salaries.

Seniority could not be reduced based on pregnancies or parental, family or medical leave, however.

The legislation would also strengthen requirements that the Montana Department of Labor and Industry maintain work classifications and corresponding pay schedules based on skill requirements, available labor supply and other factors in occupational groups dominated by either sex. Those standards would cut both ways, with language also requiring that men be paid equal compensation to women for equal work.

Employers would receive legal protections if they can prove that within three years before a complaint is filed, they have undertaken good-faith efforts to eliminate gender-based wage disparities, including self-evaluations.

No proponents or opponents to the bill spoke during the hearing, and the committee did not immediately vote on the bill. But some lawmakers on the panel questioned whether the requirements would place an undue burden on small businesses.

“What sort of detail does that employer have to have every three years to protect themselves from what I would consider potentially a spurious complaint against the office manager getting one level of pay and the people that are in the back room doing stuff getting a different level of pay?” Connell asked.

Malek responded that it would be up to the employer to define “comparable pay” and compensate employees accordingly.

The measure would also extend the window for workers to make an equal-pay claim from five months to three years, and allow those claims to proceed directly to state district court.

Currently, Montana law requires equal-pay claims based on gender to proceed through an administrative process. It requires complaints to be first submitted to the state’s Human Rights Bureau, which investigates and attempts to reconcile the issue based on its findings. Failing that, the claim heads before the department’s hearing bureau. A decision by that bureau may be appealed to the Human Rights Commission, which renders a final decision before the case can proceed to court.

Malek told the committee that for those who have the means to hire a lawyer, skipping the state’s administrative process could be more efficient.

New language in the bill would also prohibit company policies that forbid employees from discussing wages, along with screening job applicants based on their compensation at previous jobs without written authorization.

“After we pass this bill, we still have a lot of work to do in fields where traditionally women work caring for children, caring for seniors and the disabled, making and serving food,” Malek said. “These are important jobs. Our work will not be done until those in the caring professions are paid what their work is really worth, but this bill is a step in the right direction.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.