Fair Pay Needs Strong Enforcement—Ask Governor Newsom to Sign SB 1237!

California has nation-leading equal pay protections, yet significant wage disparities persist, especially for women of color.  Closing these gaps requires strong laws, effective enforcement, and accountability.

California has taken important steps to identify and address wage disparities. SB 973 (Jackson, 2020) required employers with 100 or more employees to submit annual pay data reports to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), disaggregated by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. SB 1162 (Limón, 2022) expanded these requirements to labor contractors. Together, these reports provide critical data to identify wage disparities and support CRD enforcement.

But data is only as effective as the enforcement behind it.  Strong compliance and transparency are essential to turning these protections into meaningful progress for workers.

That’s why SB 1237, authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear and co-sponsored by HOPE, is so critical. SB 1237 strengthens California’s pay equity and civil rights enforcement by:

  • Increasing accountability by requiring CRD to publish an annual report detailing the use of the Civil Rights Enforcement and Litigation Fund.
  • Strengthening compliance by increasing penalties for employers that repeatedly fail to submit required pay data reports.
  • Improving enforcement by ensuring CRD has stronger tools to promote compliance with California’s pay data reporting requirements.

This is where YOU come in.

Your voice can help strengthen California’s commitment to pay equity and civil rights protections. Sending a letter takes just a minute. Fill out the form and tell Governor Newsom it’s time to sign SB 1237 into law.

Together, we can strengthen accountability, improve enforcement, and move California closer to a workplace where every worker is paid fairly.

Sponsored by
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HOPE
Los Angeles, CA

Hispanas Organized for Political Equality® (HOPE) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to ensuring political and economic parity for Latinas through leadership, advocacy, and education to benefit all communities and the status of women.

HOPE programs and educational events are open to all individuals who support Latina leadership to strengthen our democracy and advance economic mobility.