Want to know how much your colleagues make? California might crack open companies' books

The bill was introduced by a Santa Barbara Democrat and it states that you can't solve a problem if you can't see the data. The data doesn't get us where we want to go.

Dozens of industry associations are lobbying business-friendly Democrats to kill the California measure because it would expose companies to costly litigation and cause some employers to leave the state. If the bill makes it to the governor's desk, he will be under tremendous pressure to side with the business and labor lobbies. The 2020 pay-disclosure law doesn't reveal company data.

The California Chamber of Commerce plans to educate the other members of the Legislature and the governor's office about their position.

More than a third of the state's workforce is employed by businesses with 250 or more employees. Even if the company is based in another state, it would still have to give pay data to its workers in California.

California has been a leader in the workers' rights movement. It was the first state to establish a minimum wage of at least fifteen dollars an hour, and it pushed corporations to appoint more women and people of color to their boards. White men are more likely to hold high-paying jobs and are paid more even when the job title is the same.

Data collected by a state agency under California's 2020 pay-disclosure law showed that women were paid $46 billion less than men in comparable positions, while people of color were paid $61 billion less than white workers.

The law exempts company-level information from public records requests and hides how each business is measured.

It would be the first time in history that the booming sector would be explicitly required to collect and report demographic pay data. All but the smallest businesses would be required to include salary ranges in job postings under her proposal.

California has exported labor laws to other states in the past, and advocates hope that will change. First, it has to pass.

The legislation was placed on the "Job Killers" list by the California Chamber of Commerce. Only six of the 75 bills that earned this designation made it to his desk, and he vetoed three of them.

The industry groups are unwilling to budge from their demand that the bill be changed to protect company names. That position is not a good one, according to Limn.

Laura Kray is the director of UC Berkeley's Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership. According to a Harvard Business Review study, the pay gap between men and women shrank inDenmark, while hiring of women increased.

Opponents of the California bill say it would put too much blame on individual companies for pay disparity when there are other factors at play.

The pay data published through the bill wouldn't take those factors into account and it groups jobs with very different salaries under broad categories.

The bill will be delayed for businesses with 1000 or more employees and smaller companies. She said that the change will give companies more time to explain their differences.

CalChamber characterized the proposal as a sham and said it would make businesses targets for lawsuits.

The court of public opinion is something that is very important. There is a quote that says if you are explaining you are already losing. What does this data show compared to how it is going to be depicted?

The American Staffing Association is one of the groups fighting the bill. The group said in a statement that any data collected from these businesses would be misleading because temp workers fulfill different types and lengths of assignments for different clients.

A lack of understanding about how staffing agencies operate has allowed a fast growing segment of the labor market to avoid scrutiny.

The increasing prevalence of temporary workers has captured headlines in recent years, with a New York Times investigation showing that more than half of the workforce was not employed by the company. The National Employment Law Project tracks temp work data and says these practices are becoming more common. California's temporary work sector is worth $30 billion a year, according to a study.

According to Jessica Stender, policy director for Equal Rights Advocates, employers should look at wage data as a chance to uncover and spot discrimination.

If there's data to be ashamed of, it's only shame.