HOUSE 3rd Reading Unamended March 28, 2016 HOUSE Amended 2nd Reading March 24, 2016Second Regular Session Seventieth General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO REENGROSSED This Version Includes All Amendments Adopted in the House of Introduction LLS NO. 16-0161.01 Kristen Forrestal x4217HOUSE BILL 16-1166 HOUSE SPONSORSHIP Pettersen and Winter, Arndt, Danielson, Esgar, Fields, Garnett, Ginal, Hamner, Lebsock, Melton, Pabon, Primavera, Tyler SENATE SPONSORSHIP Donovan, Todd House Committees Senate Committees Business Affairs and Labor A BILL FOR AN ACT Concerning making it an unfair employment practice for an employer to seek salary history about an applicant for employment. Bill Summary (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at http://www.leg.state.co.us/billsummaries.) The bill makes it an unfair employment practice for an employer to seek salary history information, including compensation and benefits, about an applicant for employment. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. Legislative declaration. (1) The general assembly finds that: (a) In 1944, the first equal pay bill was introduced in Congress, but it wasn't until 1963 that the Equal Pay Act, outlawing pay discrimination based on gender, became federal law; (b) Despite policies outlawing pay discrimination and creating avenues for women to sue for lost wages, women still take home only about 79 cents for every dollar a man earns; (c) Over the last 10 years, reductions in the wage gaps have slowed and the gender wage gap is not projected to close until 2059; (d) Nationally, on average, a woman who holds a full-time, year-round job is paid $39,621 per year while a man who holds a full-time, year-round job is paid $50,383 per year; (e) This means that overall there is a yearly wage gap of $10,762 between full-time working men and women; (f) For women of color, the numbers are even worse, with African American women earning only 60 cents for every dollar a white male earns, and for Latinas that number drops to 55 cents; (g) The disparity has compound effects over a woman's lifetime: Women lose somewhere between $500,000 and $1.2 million over the course of a lifetime due to the wage gap; (h) If the wage gap were eliminated, on average, a working woman in the United States would have enough money for approximately 83 more weeks of food for her family, more than 7 months of mortgage and utilities payments, or more than 11 months of rent; (i) Equal pay would mean that the poverty rate for working women would be cut in half, lifting almost 3 million women out of poverty, and increased wages would mean $447.6 billion in additional income circulating in the U.S. economy, a figure that is approximately 2.9% of the gross national product. (2) Therefore, it is the intent of the general assembly to pass legislation that helps to prevent pay discrimination at the outset by prohibiting employers from seeking the salary history of, and related information about, any applicant for employment. SECTION 2. In Colorado Revised Statutes, 24-34-402, add (1) (j) as follows: 24-34-402. Discriminatory or unfair employment practices. (1) It shall be a discriminatory or unfair employment practice: (j) For an employer to, orally or in writing, seek salary history information from an applicant for employment unless the employer has provided a salary range for the open employment position. This paragraph (j) does not apply if the applicant for employment, without solicitation from the employer, voluntarily supplies salary history information to the employer. SECTION 3. Act subject to petition - effective date. This act takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on the day following the expiration of the ninety-day period after final adjournment of the general assembly (August 10, 2016, if adjournment sine die is on May 11, 2016); except that, if a referendum petition is filed pursuant to section 1 (3) of article V of the state constitution against this act or an item, section, or part of this act within such period, then the act, item, section, or part will not take effect unless approved by the people at the general election to be held in November 2016 and, in such case, will take effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by the governor.