[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2219 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2219
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit certain
practices by employers relating to restrictions on discussion of
employees' and prospective employees' salary and benefit history, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 18, 2025
Ms. Norton introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Workforce
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A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit certain
practices by employers relating to restrictions on discussion of
employees' and prospective employees' salary and benefit history, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Salary History Question Prohibition
Act''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITIONS RELATING TO PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES' SALARY AND
BENEFIT HISTORY.
(a) In General.--The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C.
201 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 7 the following new
section:
``SEC. 8. REQUIREMENTS AND PROHIBITIONS RELATING TO WAGE, SALARY, AND
BENEFIT HISTORY.
``(a) In General.--It shall be an unlawful practice for an employer
to--
``(1) rely on the wage history of a prospective employee in
considering the prospective employee for employment, including
requiring that a prospective employee's prior wages satisfy
minimum or maximum criteria as a condition of being considered
for employment;
``(2) rely on the wage history of a prospective employee in
determining the wages for such prospective employee, except
that an employer may rely on wage history if it is voluntarily
provided by a prospective employee, after the employer makes an
offer of employment with an offer of compensation to the
prospective employee, to support a wage higher than the wage
offered by the employer;
``(3) seek from a prospective employee or any current or
former employer the wage history of the prospective employee,
except that an employer may seek to confirm prior wage
information only after an offer of employment with compensation
has been made to the prospective employee and the prospective
employee responds to the offer by providing prior wage
information to support a wage higher than that offered by the
employer; or
``(4) discharge or in any other manner retaliate against
any employee or prospective employee because the employee or
prospective employee--
``(A) opposed any act or practice made unlawful by
this section; or
``(B) took an action for which discrimination is
forbidden under section 15(a)(3).
``(b) Definition.--In this section, the term `wage history' means
the wages paid to the prospective employee by the prospective
employee's current employer or previous employer.''.
(b) Penalties.--Section 16 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 216) is amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(f)(1) Any person who violates the provisions of section 8
shall--
``(A) be subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 for a first
offense, increased by an additional $1,000 for each subsequent
offense, not to exceed $10,000; and
``(B) be liable to each employee or prospective employee
who was the subject of the violation for special damages not to
exceed $10,000 plus attorneys' fees, and shall be subject to
such injunctive relief as may be appropriate.
``(2) An action to recover the liability described in paragraph
(1)(B) may be maintained against any employer (including a public
agency) in any Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction by any
one or more employees or prospective employees for and on behalf of--
``(A) the employees or prospective employees; and
``(B) other employees or prospective employees similarly
situated.''.
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