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    Pay Transparency Letter 062818

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    1K views4 pages

    Pay Transparency Letter 062818

    Uploaded by

    Senator Cory Booker
    Pay Transparency Letter 062818

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    Wnited States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 June 28, 2018 ‘The Honorable Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III _ The Honorable Joseph J. Simons Attomney General Chair U.S. Department of Justice Federal Trade Commission 950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. 600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W, Washington, D.C. 20530 Washington, D.C. 20580 Dear Attomey General Sessions and Chairman Simons: In labor markets around the country, evidence points to a lack of competition, creating a growing power imbalance between employers and workers. Too often, this lack of competition means that American workers receive wages and compensation well below the economic value they create, driving down the wellbeing of millions of working families and undermining the foundations of our economy. Lack of competition in labor markets—combined with other trends like increased market concentration in many sectors,' declining geographic mobility for low- and middle-income workers,? reduced union membership.’ and the erosion of workplace and labor standards such as the minimum wage‘—has contributed to stagnant wages for many workers.> Since the late 1970s, the bottom 90 percent of workers have seen a cumulative gain in real annual pay of just 21 percent. For the median American worker, real hourly wages have increased by a total of only 14 percent over the last four decades, and a worker in the bottom: 10th percentile has barely seen a raise at all.” "Jason Furman, Beyond Antitrust: The Role of Competition Policy in Promoting Inclusive Growth, Sept. 16,2016, bhups:/obamawhitchouse archives gov/stes/efaulifiles‘page/iles/20160916 searle_ conference competition furman_cca pdf * Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, Americans Moving at Historically Low Rates, Census Bureau Reports, Nov. 16,2016, hps:/www.census gov newstoomipressrcleases/206/cb15-189.html. » Megan Dunn & James Walker. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US. Department of Labor, Union Membership in the United States, Sep. 2016, hups:/www.bls gov'spotlight2016/union-membershp-in-he-anited-states/pdnion-membership tates pa. “U.S. Department of Labor 7 Facts About the Minimum Wage, US, Department of Labor Blog, July 22,2016, htps:/blog dol gov /2016107/22/7-facts-about-the-minimum-wage S Benjamin Hattis, information Is Power: Fostering Labor Market Competition Through Transparent Wages, Brookings Institution, Feb. 2018, hps:/www-brookings.edwwp-contenVuploads/2018"02/s_ 2272018 information is_ power harris. pp.pat ‘Elise Gould, The State of American Wages 2017, Economie Policy Institute, Mat. 1.2013, htps/ivww.ep.org/publication the State-of-american-wages-201 7-wages-have-finally-recovered-fromhe-blow-of-the-preat-recession-but-are-still-growing-100- slovwly-and-unequally TM One crucial advantage that employers hold over workers is asymmetric information about industry pay: many employers have detailed data about wages in a particular market, while workers often have little to no knowledge of how their wages compare with those of their co-workers or colleagues at other companies. This lack of pay transparency makes it harder for workers to negotiate for higher wages. It is also a significant contributing factor in perpetuating gender and racial pay gaps, because it is harder for workers to find out that they are being underpaid in the first place* ‘As you know, many employers participate in privately commissioned compensation surveys, which provide detailed wage data organized by types of jobs and employers. Employers ostensibly use this information to offer attractive compensation to their workers.? Compensation surveys are widely used: in a recent study, 53 percent of firms reported having participated in a compensation survey during the previous year.'° Your agencies have long asserted a role for the federal government in supervising the exchange of information through these surveys. While exchange of compensation information among employers could form the basis for collusive behavior in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, currently employers can share this information relatively freely thanks to the antitrust “safety zone” policy implemented by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The “safety zone” guidance, originally developed in 1996 for health care providers and later extended to other industries," states that DOJ and the FTC generally will not challenge the sharing of written compensation information among employers if it meets certain requirements relating to who manages the survey, how old the reported information is, and how hard it is to identify any individual employer’s compensation practices from the aggregated data. DOJ and the FTC explained that this policy was expressly intended as a “careful balancing” between, on the one hand, enabling employers to adjust wages based on market conditions and, on the other, risking collusion by the same employers to set wages at an agreed-upon level." In fact, the guidance specifically recognized that, in the absence of “appropriate safeguards,” “information * Bg, Jelt Hayes, Private Sector Workers Lack Pay Transparency: Pay Secrecy May Reduce Women's Bargaining Power and Contribute to Gender Wage Gap, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Dec. 20,2017, hips:/iwpr or/publicaionsprivate- seetorspay-seerecy; of Valerie Wilson, Repeal of Pay Transparency Rule Wil Make It Easier To Disriminate Against Women and People of Color, Economic Policy Insitute, Aug. 30,2017, hips:/hwww.ep.og/blog/repeal-of-paytransparency-rle-wil- Imake-i-easier-(o

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