In this moment, the future of our rights, our bodily autonomy, our freedom feels uncertain. What we do next will make a difference for decades to come.
Victory: On February 28, 2022, the district court denied the defendants’ motion to vacate the summary judgment decision, closing the case and keeping the decision in place. The court declined to vacate its decision on the ground that the defendants’ voluntary compliance with the court’s orders had mooted their appeal of the summary judgment decision. With this decision, NWLC and our partner Democracy Forward secured one last victory for equal pay.
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on November 15 against the Trump Administration on behalf of NWLC and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement for illegally rolling back critical pay transparency requirements intended to root out discrimination and close the wage gap. The suit, which was filed against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and government officials, seeks to reinstate the requirement that companies with 100 or more employees report how much they pay their workers by race, gender, and ethnicity. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, follows the Trump Administration’s abrupt reversal in August 2017 of the previously approved EEOC collection of employee pay data. This equal pay data collection was the result of a six-year process, which included multiple lengthy public notice and comment periods. Even though the EEOC determined that collecting this pay data was “necessary” to enforce equal pay laws, the Administration claimed it had no “practical utility” and eliminated this essential tool with virtually no explanation and no opportunity for public comment. As a result, the roughly 60,886 employers covered by the rule — who collectively employ 63 million workers — are empowered to continue to shield race and gender pay gaps from scrutiny.