Pay equity is fundamentally about fairness. It is about the basic principle that women should make equal pay for equal work and that employers shouldn't discriminate against women based on gender. Yet as of 2016, Connecticut’s wage gap was worse than the national average—on average, women in Connecticut are paid only 79% of what men are paid. This disparity was even worse for women of color.
Employers should base pay on women's skills and qualifications, not on the value someone else has placed on their work in the past. Salary history requirements, however, create and perpetuate glass ceilings by keeping women's wages lower based on what they have made previously. These requirements enable paycheck discrimination to follow a woman from one job to the next. Wage discrimination shouldn't happen in the first place, and it definitely shouldn't haunt a woman throughout her career. Paying someone less on the basis of gender, race, or ethnicity is wrong, and it has no place in the modern world. The ACLU of Connecticut is proud to support these bills and to be part of the coalition of groups standing up for pay equity in Connecticut, because women don't check their rights at the workplace door.
