A new bill filed on Jan. 16 with the Massachusetts Legislature seeks to close the gender wage gap. The bill was created by the Equal Pay Coalition, an alliance comprised of 20 organizations and nonprofits.

The Equal Pay Coalition was founded by the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women, the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, and the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts.

“[The three] groups had been working to close the gender pay gap independently, so we decided to collaborate on an innovative bill that combines new ideas with pieces from previous legislation,” says Katie Prisco-Buxbaum, communications director for the Equal Pay Coalition.

This new bill draws on prior anti-discrimination legislation and clarifies language on “comparable worth,” a term that has given businesses trouble in the past because of its vagueness, says Prisco-Buxbaum.

“We really defined [comparable worth] to make sure that women are getting compensated based on [skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions] versus previous pay.”

“Equal pay for equal worth.”

Titled “An Act to Establish Pay Equity,” the new bill allows employees to discuss their salaries with each other without fear of discrimination. Additionally, the bill assures more transparency during the hiring process. Employers must post jobs with the minimum offered salary included, and also are prohibited from investigating the pay history of applicants.

“Women often don’t know they are being underpaid,” says UMass Boston Professor of Economics Marlene Kim. Although not a formal member of the Equal Pay Coalition, Kim helped drafters of the bill and has done research on pay secrecy and transparency.

Employers often equate salary levels with skill and experience levels during the hiring process, says Kim. Because of this, higher-paid men can be picked over lower-paid but equally qualified woman––or the employer may offer a woman a lower salary, with her prior one as a reference point.

Kim cites the famous case of Lilly Ledbetter, a Goodyear Tire manager who after almost 20 years on the job was unknowingly paid far less than her male counterparts, even ones she had trained.

“If this [bill] goes through it will put Massachusetts on the map [with this issue].”

Professor of Economics Randy Albelda says the gender wage gap has multiple causes, the first being discrimination. Secondly, she says women’s employment histories are affected by care providing. Obligated to split time between care and work, they can be limited to a part-time job.

“We are one of two countries that don’t have paid maternity leave.”
She says that 30 percent of women work in “sex segregated jobs,” such as childcare, teaching, and social work, which are undervalued and so under-compensated.
After being filed on Jan. 16, “An Act to Establish Pay Equity” has yet to be assigned to a committee in the Massachusetts House of Representatives

In the meantime, the Equal Pay Coalition is focused on continuing to spread awareness, organize around this bill, and garner support in the Senate.

The docket numbers of the  bill are HD 2802 and SD 1423.