Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 387 - Federal Equitable Pay Practices Act

(Senate)
(Oakar (D) OH and 150 others)

The Administration strongly supports the principle of equal pay for equal work as embodied in current law. Moreover, the Administration supports full enforcement of the current law and rejects attempts to undermine that principle.

H.R. 387's plan to determine the existence of discrimination in Federal pay practices, however, is not based on the clear standards defining discrimination in title 5 of the United States Code, the Equal Pay Act, or title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The bill requires a study which would inevitably use subjective criteria not primarily based on labor market supply and demand. Furthermore, the membership of the mandated study commission established by the bill to judge the results of the study has been structured to ensure a majority supportive of the subjective pay determinations that would arise from a comparable worth policy.

The Administration, accordingly, opposes enactment of H.R. 387. If H.R. 387 were to reach the President's desk, his senior advisers would recommend that it be vetoed.