Carroll’s Equal Pay Bill to Crack Down on Wage Discrimination Becomes Law

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, helped pass legislation that seeks to end discriminatory pay practices used by employers that have been used to lock women into a lifetime of unfair and unequal wages. Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed the measure into law.

“It is not a hard concept to understand that women deserve to earn the same pay as their male colleagues for performing the same job,” said Carroll. “I do not want my daughter to live in a world where she earns less pay simply because she is a woman. Employers who executed these bad practices to restrict women from earning equal pay should be ashamed, and now they and their cohorts who engage in similar discriminatory practices are breaking the law.”

Carroll’s House Bill 834 will more strictly prevent employers from asking potential employees about their salary history, which has been a discriminatory practice used against women to justify paying them less for the same job their male colleagues perform. Banning corporations and employers from engaging in this practice will begin to break the cycle of unfair pay for women.

The measure received bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“Employers should be seeking out the most talented individuals to perform the jobs they are trying to fill and not using women’s gender as an excuse to withhold their compensation,” said Carroll. “I thank the governor for doing the right thing for Illinois women, but there is still a long way to go to ensure that all women earn equal pay for equal work.”