Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2025, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit employers from paying disparate wages for reasons based solely on gender to employees that perform equal work.

The measure also provides for exceptions from this prohibition in circumstances where there exists:

The measure further establishes a four-year pay equity task force to review relevant information regarding gender-based pay inequities and make recommendations to the Legislature annually to rectify any problems discovered.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, an employer is prohibited from discriminating against an employee in compensation or in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis of the employee's gender. In addition, further protection against the same and related types of discrimination based upon sex is provided for under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. §206(d). Despite the existence of these prohibitions, currently in Hawaii wage disparity continues to exist where a woman earns only eighty-four cents for each dollar earned by a man. The effect of such a wage disparity: negatively impacts the financial security, health, and well-being of women and families; contributes to the existence of depressed wages, reductions in standards of living, and increases in poverty rates; prevents the maximum utilization of available labor resources; and increases the number of labor disputes.

Your Committee has amended the measure by making technical amendments to clarify that differentials in pay for equal work may be allowed in cases where other factors that may be authorized under law, but not explicitly stated in the proposed new section, are acceptable reasons for paying a person a different wage for the equal work. Your Committee has also made several technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

Your Committee believes that the passage of the measure signifies the State's recognition that discrimination on the basis of gender with regard to the payment of wages continues to exist within the State. Your Committee also believes that the establishment of a task force to review information relevant to gender-based pay inequities and make recommendations to the Legislature for specific actions to correct such inequities will also reaffirm and solidify the State's commitment to ensuring that such discriminatory practices are finally eliminated.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2025, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2025, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.