2020 election: Kamala Harris proposes big fines for companies who do not cut gender pay gap

'When you lift up the economic status of women, you lift up... all of society,' says California senator

Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris has announced a proposal to use fines to force businesses to pay women as much as men for work of equal value.

Studies say that American women make around 80 per cent of what is paid to men, with the latest weekly wage statistics from 2018 putting the figure of 81.1 per cent, a drop of 0.7 per cent from 2017.

The situation is even worse for black and Hispanic women, who earn 65.3 per cent and 61.6 per cent of a white man's wage. Black women earn 89 percent of what a black man earns, while Hispanic women earn 85.7 per cent of what a Hispanic man earns.

“When you lift up the economic status of women, you lift up their families, their neighbourhoods, and all of society,” Ms Harris said at a Los Angeles rally ahead of the announcement. “And it’s an issue that’s been around for far too long without much progress at all.”

The plan from the California senator would involve all corporations having to receive “equal pay certification” from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and fines of one per cent of profits for every one per cent of wage gap that exists after accounting for differences in job title and experience.

The move would shift the onus from the employee, who currently has to prove pay discrimination, and would ensure companies submit data and the state of equal pay at each firm. Companies with more than 500 employees will have two years to implement the plan, while companies with between 100 and 500 workers will have three years.

“What I am proposing is we shift the burden: It should not be on that working woman to prove it, it should instead be on that large corporation to prove they're paying people for equal work equally,” Ms Harris said. “It's that simple, it's literally that simple. And this, then, is not only about fairness and equality, it's about transparency. Show us what you got. That's it.”

The government would use the money collected through the fines to help finance universal paid family and medical leave. A lack of such paid leave hits women particularly hard according to Ms Harris' campaign, reducing the ability to maximise earnings over a lifetime.

Ms Harris' campaign believe the new plan will raise more than $180bn over 10 years, meaning that it would succeed without money from Congress.

The plan is not the first from a 2020 candidate, with Bernie Sanders making pay equality part of his 12-point economic plan. A number of candidates, including Ms Harris, have also supported the Paycheck Fairness Act which has passed the House of Representatives and looks to close loop holes in the Equal pay Act of 1963.

The new proposals face difficulties with the business community who will likely look to resist another piece of government regulation - but the California senator said she is ready for a battle.

“I've been in those fights before,” Ms Harris said. “I've been in the fights with the big banks around the foreclosure crisis that hit California and Nevada and a bunch of states around our country. I've been in those fights before.”