Senate HELP Committee Executive Session Addresses Working Families’ Needs

UPDATE: The Senate HELP Committee approved all three of the bills it considered (the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Healthy Families Act and the PRO Act) on the afternoon of June 21, 2023, on a party-line vote, with all Democrats voting in favor of the bills; amendments were proposed but none were adopted.

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The U.S. Senate HELP Committee today is considering three important pieces of legislation in executive session:

• The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would provide more transparency about employers’ compensation practices, protect workers who share information about compensation, prohibit salary-setting based on prior compensation, and make it harder and more costly for employers to engage in discriminatory pay practices;
• The Healthy Families Act, which would create a national paid sick days standard, allowing workers in businesses with 15 or more employees to earn up to seven paid sick and “safe” days each year and guaranteeing job-protected, unpaid sick and safe days to workers in smaller businesses; and
• The Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which would make it easier for workers to join together to advocate for better pay and benefits, safer working conditions, and fairer terms of employment; and would create new penalties for employers’ interference in workers’ right to organize.

Each of these bills seek to address gaps and inequities in pay, benefits and working conditions:

Equal Pay. Currently, women who work full-time, year round are paid just 84 cents for every dollar paid to men and all (part- and full-time) women workers are paid just 77 cents compared to all men; for Black, Latine, Native and some Asian women, for mothers and queer women and non-binary people, the gap can be much bigger.

A portion of the wage gap is due to occupational segregation, hours worked, years of experience, education, age, and other factors, but a substantial portion of the gap – about 30 percent on average and more in more hazardous occupations – cannot be explained. The Paycheck Fairness Act would help to address that unexplained portion of the gap, as well as providing tools, data and protections that could address other contributors to the wage gap.

Paid Sick Time. Nearly one-quarter of private-sector workers overall – including 45 percent of workers who are paid less than $16.55 and 62 percent of workers who are paid less than $13.50 – do not have a single paid sick day at their jobs; many of these workers are also in part-time jobs, which are especially unlikely to offer paid sick time. Demographically and geographically, Latine workers and rural workers are less likely than their counterparts to have paid sick time. Even when workers theoretically have paid sick time they may face limitations on its use (for example, the inability to use paid sick days to care for a child, or to address the need for "safe" days that survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault may need); and many people accrue absence control points that penalize workers for using paid time off without advance notice.

Without paid sick days, workers struggle to buy groceries, pay rent, afford health insurance, or pay for transportation; people are forced to forgo needed preventive care, may report to work sick and spread illness, or may use expensive emergency department care rather than primary care to address health issues. Conversely, access to paid sick days improves workers’ and community health and improves their ability to care and provide for their loved ones. Contrary to opponents’ fears, state and local paid sick days laws have had no negative impacts on businesses. The Healthy Families Act would set a baseline standard across the country so that workers would be able to access paid or unpaid sick and safe time no matter where they live, their employer, or their job.

Unionization. In the United States, just 11.3 percent of workers are represented by a union and just 10.1 percent of workers are union members. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reported a 53 percent increase in union election petitions between October 2021 and September 2022 (fiscal year 2022), demonstrating the desire of more workers to unionize. At the same time, the NLRB also saw a substantial 19 percent increase in unfair labor practice charges, with nearly 18,000 claims filed in fiscal year 2022.

The ability to act collectively provides workers with more bargaining power to seek and receive higher wages, greater workplace benefits, and fairer schedules, among other things. The PRO Act would help safeguard the right to unionize.

The proposals before the committee address long-standing economic justice issues, and action is long overdue.

The HELP Committee’s action to address fair pay, paid sick time and the right to unionize is in line with public opinion data collected in the last few years:

• 78 percent of adults in the US say they support a national paid sick leave requirement, and support transcends party lines;
• 73 percent of adults say that it’s important for Congress to strengthen equal pay laws, and support transcends party lines;
• 71 percent of adults say they approve of labor unions, the highest share reported since 1965.

Together, the Healthy Families Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the PRO Act would provide greater economic security and stability for working families, especially families headed by or substantially supported by women.

Their enactment would change the country in five key, related ways:

1. Unionization is associated with a smaller gender-based wage gap. Workers in unionized workplaces have smaller gender- and race based wage gaps. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, women in workplaces represented by a union have a wage gap that is 40 percent smaller than non-represented workplaces, and the gains are greater for Latina and Black women because workers of color regardless of gender see wage boosts from unionization.
2. Unionization is associated with greater access to paid sick days. Because benefits are often collectively bargained in union negotiations, workers in unionized workplaces have higher rates of access to paid sick days. Access to paid sick days is 11-percentage points higher in unionized workplaces than in non-unionized workplaces in both the private and public sectors (87 percent of workers in unionized private industry employers and 98 percent of workers in unionized state and local governments have paid sick days).
3. Addressing both fair pay and access to paid leave can help to stop a pernicious cycle where the gendered nature of caregiving is both a contributor to and a consequence of the gender-based wage gap and gender-based financial inequality. The wage gap for women grows with age – this is because women are more likely than men to take time away from the workforce, to turn down promotions, or to work fewer hours than men to provide care to a child, a loved one with a health issue or disability, or an older family member.

   But this is a self-perpetuating challenge: Because a woman in a two-earner family tends to be paid less, it’s an economically rational decision for her to continue to take time away from work over time; continued career interruptions in turn contribute to the wage gap, a retirement security gap and a wealth gap. Creating safeguards against pay discrimination – along with providing caregiving supports like paid family and medical leave and paid sick time – can help to close both the wage gap and advance gender equity in caregiving, which is something people of all genders – including men – want.

4. Guaranteed access to paid sick days would disproportionately help women and mothers gain more employment stability and financial security. Women and men in the aggregate have about equal access to paid sick time, but as noted above, women take on the disproportionate share of family caregiving for older or disabled family members. Although fathers are doing more than they were even two years ago, mothers take on more caregiving for children. More than half of mothers with paying jobs (56 percent) say they are the one to care for a child who is sick, and half of partnered mothers (51 percent) and 60 percent of un-partnered mothers report losing pay when they provide care to a sick child. In contrast, just 19 percent of fathers say they are the parent who usually cares for a sick child (up from 9 percent two years ago); 49 percent report losing pay when they do.

   In the United States, except where state or local laws offer protection, workers can be fired or face discipline for calling in sick; one older study found that one-quarter of workers said they had been fired or threatened with being fired for calling in sick, and another found that more than one-third of private-sector workers were afraid of facing penalties for an unscheduled absence.

5. Each of these bills, if enacted, would create new norms and expectations about worker voice, power, and equality. These proposals create new benefits, rights, protections and presumptions about workplace equality. They acknowledge and honor the multiple roles that people play as workers and caregivers. And they ascribe greater value to workers’ labor. Policies that set new standards, rights and protections around pay, benefits and workers’ collective action also help to shift narratives and mindsets about work, family, fairness, caregiving, and gender, and could advance gender, racial and economic equity in the United States overall.

It’s exciting to see federal lawmakers address the needs of working families. The HELP Committee’s work on these bills can help working people feel empowered to demand more – at work and from the policymakers who represent them.

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Read our letter to Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders commending the work of the committee on these bills here.