Mississippi will soon be the final state to pass an equal pay law. Two bills were introduced throughout the legislative session, and both were quickly denounced by women’s advocates for not providing substantial protections for female workers or people of color. Representative Angela Cockerham of Magnolia authored House Bill 770, and says some new language was added to the bill in the final conference report now passed by both chambers.
Rep. Cockerham read aloud a segment of the bill to the chamber “If any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase or any part of this act passed is declared to be unconstitutional or void, or if for any reason is declared to be invalid or of no effect, the remaining sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases or parts thereof shall be in no manner affected thereby but shall remain in full force and effect.”
Opponents of the bill say this section may have been added because of the bill’s alleged shortcomings. Cassandra Welchlin, Executive Director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Round Table, says she has been advocating for equal pay in Mississippi for more than a decade. She says the bill passed by lawmakers would allow for employers to use salary history as justification for continuing to offer unequal wages. Welchlin says this undercuts the purpose of the bill.
“We would prefer to have had no bill, come back to the table to get a good clean bill that did the things that we know that women need to protect their wages, than to have a bill that further discriminates and further punishes a woman for being a woman.”
The bill is expected to be signed by Governor Tate Reeves within the coming week.
