Mississippi has had the dubious distinction of being the last state in the nation to not have either an equal pay law or a non-discrimination statute that impacts employment. But that is likely about to change: The state legislature voted Wednesday to pass a bill that awaits the governor’s signature and would require employers to offer equal pay for equal work, ending years of efforts to pass a pay equality measure in the state.

While that might seem like a moment for advocates to celebrate, some are alarmed by provisions in the final bill, including one that specifically lists applicants’ continuous employment, negotiation attempts and salary history as factors employers might be able to use to justify a pay gap—the last of which moves in the opposite direction of laws that now ban the question in some 20 states.

The bill, argues Andrea Johnson, director of state policy at the National Women’s Law Center, which advocates for gender equality issues, is “taking the textbook factors that contribute to the wage gap and codifying them into law, saying they are permissible things for employers to rely on.”

Known as the Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the bill says employers may not pay workers less than those of the opposite sex for work that “requires equal skill, education, effort and responsibility, and which is performed under similar working conditions,” mirroring language in federal law. Like the federal law, it also makes exception for things like a seniority...

Read Full Story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/2022/03/31/mississippi-finally-pass...