Senate committee does not advance bill on pay-transparency and equal-pay enforcement

Senate Bill 205, a measure intended to increase pay transparency and make it easier to enforce existing prohibitions on pay discrimination, was not reported out of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on May 14.

Senator Carter, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation would help enforce Louisiana Revised Statute 23:664 (prohibited acts) by removing secrecy around pay and preventing employers from relying on an employee’s prior pay history to justify lower pay for the same work. "The problem with enforcing the legislative will of this body to prohibit pay discrimination is transparency," Carter said.

Supporters described pay transparency as a tool to reduce the gender pay gap and to protect workers. Angel Bradford Rosenberg and other witnesses said making pay information available reduces bias and improves workplace morale.

Opponents, including Patrick Robinson of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, said the bill would hurt workers by preventing employers from seeing relevant payroll history and could lead to lower offers for new hires. Robinson said such policies sometimes result in "lowball offers" and destabilize workplaces when internal pay comparisons occur.

Senator Barrow moved to report the bill favorably; Senator Stein objected. The committee recorded a roll-call vote and the chair announced that SB 205 was not reported (committee announcement: 5 nays, 2 yeas). As a result, the measure did not advance from committee on that date.

What’s next: With the committee vote, SB 205 will not move forward from this committee during the current hearing.