Debbie Lesko: “I thank my good friend from Texas, Representative Burgess, for yielding me time on this most important issue. First, I…”

“I thank my good friend from Texas, Representative Burgess, for yielding me time on this most important issue. First, I would like to talk about the underlying bill. Equal work does deserve equal pay, regardless of the sex of the employee. In America, this is already the law of the land, and it has been since 1963 when Congress passed the Equal Pay Act. However, we stand here today debating a rule for a partisan Democrat bill that offers no protections against pay discrimination in the workplace. Instead, the bill makes it easier for trial lawyers to score unlimited paydays while dragging working women through never-ending legal dramas. This bill also prevents women from utilizing their expertise, skills, talents, and education to their advantage. It effectively ties employers' hands from considering factors that would allow them to potentially give employees better working environments or for employees to negotiate a higher salary. According to Camille Olson, who testified as a witness in the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services and on the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, there can indeed be unintended negative consequences from this bill. Let me read an example from her written testimony. This is her statement, and she gave an example. It basically says: In this example an employer has chosen to pay a higher salary to a female law firm office administrator who has a J.D. degree.…”