In California, Making Pay Equity and Transparency the Law

By SETH SANDRONSKY

At press time, a broad coalition lobbied California state lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 1162, the Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act. Under SB1162, which state Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) introduced private employers with 100 or more workers would make public salary and wage data for median and mean hourly rate for each combination of race, ethnicity, and sex within each job category. This metric includes direct hires and contract staffing employees, e.g., temporary workers.

The American Staffing Association and the California Chamber of Commerce oppose SB 1162. Both employer-advocacy groups put SB 1162 on their list of job killer legislation. Though employers are a small single digit of the population, they wield political influence over lawmakers.

Roberto Clack is the executive director of Temp Worker Justice. “Despite the significant opposition from business we are optimistic that SB 1162 will pass this legislative session,” he wrote in an email. “Our bill is a priority for the California Legislative Caucus and we have strong support from labor groups such as the California Federation of Labor, the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America, along with organizations such as the TechEquity Collaborative, Equal Rights Advocates and Worksafe.”

SB 1162 is the first pay transparency law legislation in the US, and if it passes in the Golden State, could pave the path for other states to do likewise concerning better pay transparency, extending to staffing agencies and contract positions, according to Clack. “At Temp Worker Justice, we have seen for far too long that staffing agency employees are a second-tier workforce while often doing the exact same job for less pay and benefits as their direct-hire counterparts.

“There can be a strong correlation with race and gender in who fills these positions, and that’s why we have been able to build such a strong coalition that is fighting for pay transparency which has proven to help address pay gaps,” Clack said. “The Alphabet Workers Union who have taken real leadership in organizing to hold staffing agencies accountable at tech giants like Google (based in California’s Silicon Valley). We have also been in conversations with groups who are looking to do more organizing of temp workers in industries like warehousing and healthcare that have a large and growing presence of staffing agencies. Along with supporting union and workplace justice organizing, we think it’s important to educate and raise awareness on the issue of staffing agencies and believe labor and progressive movements should do more organizing on this issue.”

Temp Worker Justice recently released a report, “California:The Temp Work State” (see ). This report details in part that 3% of jobs in the state are temporary hires. What is wrong?

According to TWJ report, “Temp jobs perpetuate poverty instead of providing a pathway out of it, and disproportionately impact women and people of color. By paying unequal wages for equal work, the temporary staffing industry is a key driver of the pay gap. In California, women lose $46 billion annually and people of color in California lose $61 billion annually to unequal pay.”

What happens if business groups defeat SB 1162? “Whether the law passes or not,” according to Clack, “we are going to continue to support policies and workplace organizing that works to change conditions for the 1.9 million temp workers in the state of California and across the nation. We are also hoping to build a coalition even further. We are seeing this campaign as just the beginning of the process of raising awareness on this issue while building a base that can win real wins for temp workers.”

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2022

Populist.com