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Charlotte NC

Adams, Bonamici Lead Call to Protect Workplace Rights for Women

October 26, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chair Alma Adams (NC-12) and Education and Labor Civil Rights and Human Services Subcommittee Chair Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) led their colleagues in calling on the Department of Labor (DOL) to withdraw a harmful proposed rule to narrow its interpretation of employee status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which would leave workers vulnerable to employee misclassification and threaten workplace protections for women.

"Equal pay requirements, break time for nursing workers, and paid leave are hard-fought protections that promote the health and economic security of millions of working women and their families," the Members of Congress wrote. "The Department's proposed rule fails to acknowledge or quantify the potential effects for workers if they are stripped of these key protections."

The Members noted that even before the pandemic, women struggled with economic insecurity and were overrepresented in low-wage jobs. Even though women are nearly half of the workforce and many serve as essential workers, four times more women than men dropped out of the labor force in September 2020 because of the economic consequences of the pandemic. Women of color face even greater disparities.

"Fast tracking a rule that would exclude workers from critical protections during a period of deep economic strife goes against the mission of the Department to assure work-related benefits and rights for wage earners and job seekers," the Members wrote. "We implore the Department to stop this attempt to push through a rule that would leave workers, including women, worse off."

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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