VT-Unlawful Employment Practices Bill stalled

from the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign.

ACTION ALERT: SAVE H.381, UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES BILL

H.381, Unlawful Employment Practices Bill, sponsored by Rep. Pugh and
Rep. Donovan is currently stalled in the House Committee on General and
Housing & Military Affairs.  We need your help to push this important
bill to the floor.  Take five minutes to send an email or call committee
members today!

H. 381 contains a provision that makes it unlawful for an employer to
discharge or discriminate against an employee for disclosing her or his
wages to another employee. In Vermont, only 10% of working Vermonters
are unionized.  This non-retaliation provision will protect the nearly
90 percent of Vermonters that do not belong to a union and therefore are
unprotected by a similar provision which is in the National Labor
Relations Act.  More specifically, this bill will protect low-wage
workers who are often pressured by employers not to discuss their wages
with colleagues.

Low-wage workers need the protections afforded under H. 381 to enable
healthy and productive conversations around livable wages with their
employers and co-workers in all places of employment in Vermont.

Women and people of color will particularly benefit from the
non-retaliation provision of H. 381 because H. 381 will complement the
goals of the Equal Pay Act, passed in April 2002.  This Act makes it
easier to file wage discrimination claims; however, people do not know
they are being discriminated against unless they have the freedom to
discuss their pay rates with their colleagues.

According to the recent Vermont Job Gap Study, 35% of all women who
worked full time did not earn a livable wage for a single person with no
children compared to only 19% of men in 1999.  Of all full-time workers,
36% of people of color compared to 24% of whites did not make a livable
wage for a single person with no children.  White median household
income was 51% higher than that of native peoples and 30% higher than
black households.

The gender and racial wage gap unfairly forces women and people of color
to work longer hours in order to have to same standard of living as
their white male counterparts and costs Vermont families thousands of
dollars a year.

H.381 will be an important tool for working Vermonters in opening up
dialogue with employers on livable wages and also help to end unfair
wage discrimination for low-income people, women, and people of color in
Vermont.

TAKE FIVE MINUTES TO CALL OR EMAIL COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO VOICE YOUR
SUPPORT OF H. 381 AND URGE THE COMMITTEE TO MOVE H. 381 TO THE
FLOOR!

Representative Larrabee of Danville, Chair,         684-2247,
[email protected]
Representative Howrigan of Fairfield, Vice-Chair, 827-6513, no email
Representative Darrow of Dummerston, 254-7454, no email
Representative Donovan of Burlington, 863-4634, [email protected]
Representative Hunt of Essex, 878-8406, [email protected]
Representative Kitzmiller of Montpelier, Clerk, 229-0878,
[email protected]
Representative Miller of Elmore, 888-2296, [email protected]
Representative Robinson of Richmond, 434-3045, [email protected]
Representative Shaw of Derby, 766-5022, [email protected]
Representative Tracy of Burlington, 863-4135, [email protected]
Representative Wright of Burlington, 658-1410, [email protected]


For more information, please contact Emma at 863-2345 x8 or
[email protected] or contact Mary Claire at Vermont Business and
Professional Woman at 434-2312 or [email protected]

Thank you!

*************************************************
Vermont Livable Wage Campaign
21 Church Street
Burlington VT 05401
(802)863-2345 x8
(802)863-2532 (fax)
[email protected]
www.vtlivablewage.org

Vermont Workers' Center
PO Box 883
Montpelier, VT  05601
802-229-0009
802-229-9100 (fax)
866-229-0009 (Toll Free)
info-xqnjiU5gMKyTqlfgt4LEddi2O/[email protected]
www.workerscenter.org
*************************************************


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