Mississippi is the only state to not have a law requiring equal pay for all genders, and House Bill 770 aims to eliminate the gender wage gap in the state. Gender-based wage discrimination is illegal through federal law, and all cases in Mississippi must currently go through federal court to seek prosecution. Representative Angela Cockerham of Magnolia authored the bill. She says it would allow victims of gender-based wage discrimination to seek legal recourse in state courts.
Cockerham says “The bill also addresses retaliation by the employer. As well as saying, listen, if there is a claim by an employee, you can not lower your salary. They would have to bring my salary up. I think that’s very important, and it’s something that the courts have touched on.”
Before house lawmakers voted to pass the measure, an amendment was adopted that replaced or updated much of the language of the bill. In addition to defining several additional terms, it also added examples of how an employer could defend against a wage discrimination lawsuit. Matt Steffey, Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law, says one exception provided in the bill would allow employers to use past wages as a reason to continue paying unfair salaries.
“The salary history is intellectually problematic, is factually problematic, is unlawful under federal law in most of the country, and unlawful by state law in much of the country,” says Steffey. “And so to say ‘We’re going to fix sex discrimination going forward’ freezes in whatever amount of sex discriminations exists now.”
The “Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act” passed the house with a vote of 111-5.
