GOP lawmaker bucks Republicans, votes with Democrats

A pay equity bill making its way through Olympia is getting bipartisan support, but that doesn’t mean Republicans and Democrats agree on why it should pass.

House Bill 1506 would update the Washington State Equal Pay Act to allow employees to discuss wages with each other and bar companies from retaliating if they do. Rep. Tana Senn (D-Mercer Island) put the bill forward in an attempt to mitigate the wage gap between the genders.

Last week, the bill passed in the House in a 69-28 vote, which means some Republicans voted yes. Rep. Jesse Young (R-Gig Harbor) was one of those Republicans, but he told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz the wage gap argument wasn’t what convinced him, adding that he liked “the first amendment discussions with regard to limiting employers ability to restrict your discussions on pay with other employees,” Young said.

Most studies indicate the median salary for women is only about 80 percent the median salary for men, and Rep. Senn referenced a similar number while speaking in support of her bill on the House floor. Young, like many Republicans, disputes the relevance of a statistic like that one.

“If you really look at apples to apples comparisons the numbers are much better than they paint,” Young said. “I feel like that hurts the dialogue and makes it harder for truly bipartisan work to get done.”

Young said his corporate experience led him to believe this bill was still worth passing.

“When you’re starting to talk about these new jobs of the 21st Century in IT related fields where there hasn’t been a lot of maturity in terms of employer/employee relations relative to other industries that have really built up the country,” Young said, “there is a lot of growth that needs to happen in terms of supporting worker rights.”

The bill awaits consideration in the Senate.

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