The Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday passed one job killer bill along for consideration by the full Assembly and delayed consideration of another job killer until next year.

Passed May 26 on a vote of 11-6 was AB 1209 (Gonzalez Fletcher; D-San Diego) Public Shaming of California Employers. The bill imposes a mandate on California employers to collect data on the mean and median salaries paid to men and women under the same job title or description without also considering any bona fide reason for differences in compensation, to publicly shame California employers and expose them to costly litigation for alleged wage disparity where no violation of the equal pay law exists.

The committee delayed action on AB 43 (Thurmond; D-Richmond) Targeted Tax on Contractors. The bill will not be moving any more this year, but will be eligible for consideration next year. The bill unfairly targets one category of taxpayers to fund a benefit for all of the state by imposing a tax on contractors for the privilege of doing business with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and requires the contractor to absorb the cost while maintaining a price of lowest responsible bidder.

Awaiting action by the entire Assembly since earlier this month is AB 1576 (Levine; D- San Rafael) Gender Pricing Mandate. The bill unfairly exposes companies to costly, frivolous litigation with an automatic $4,000 in statutory damages for alleged gender pricing discrimination based upon different consumer prices for female versus male products that businesses will be forced to settle to avoid costs or spend significant legal fees demonstrating those differences are based upon objective, non-gender related specific factors.

Action Needed

The CalChamber is urging members to contact their Assembly representatives to ask them to oppose these job killer bills.

Easy-to-edit sample letters are available at www.calchamber.votes.com.