Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas State Representative Gene Wu (D-Houston) has filed H.B. 761 to create the Texas Pay Equity Task Force a commission charged with studying the issue of pay parity between both gender and race in state agencies.
The task force will be comprised of experts from across the state who will combine their extensive experience and knowledge to conduct this investigation and provide recommendations to ensure Texans receive equal pay for equal work regardless of gender or race.
Representative Wu made the following statement regarding this legislation:
The founding promise of our great nation is that all persons are created equal and should be treated equally under the law. Unfortunately despite decades of advancement and perseverance the pay gap between men and women is still a wide gulf --- with women earning only 80.5 cents for every dollar that a man makes and women of color often making even less.
I have filed H.B. 761 to create the Texas Pay Equity Task Force in order to fully gauge the depth of this problem as it exists in state government and to make recommendations to the legislature and state executive leadership on how to adequately address this inequality.
I believe that if we as the governing body of the State of Texas are to start addressing this issue we should start with our own agencies. We must make sure that the state government as the states single largest employer is doing everything possible to correct this wrong.
State Representative Gene Wu is serving his fourth term in the Texas House of Representatives. He represents House District 137 which includes the southwestern portions of the City of Houston.
