MACo Legislative Director, Natasha Mehu, provided testimony in support (with amendments) of House Bill 62- Procurement Contracts- Gender Wage Gap Reporting before the House Health & Government Operations Committee on January 18, 2018.

This legislation would require any entity bidding for a contract with a state or local entity to report the mean and median wages of all male and female employees in the organization, as well as, how many people are employed in total. There are many considerations that still need to be taken into account in this bill. Including, but not limited to:

• Does this apply to all procurements, or just those over a certain dollar threshold?
• What happens if a bidder or offeror adds or changes staff after receiving a public contract – are they required to provide updated information?
• Do local governments have the ability or obligation to reject the bid in light of wage data provided?

From MACo Testimony:

Gathering data to address wage equity issues is a laudable objective. However, MACo believes the lack of clarity in this bill could result in unintended consequences, such as discouraging potential vendors from bidding, or in findings that vendors are nonresponsive to solicitations when they otherwise would serve as able government partners.

Follow MACo’s advocacy efforts during the 2018 legislative session here.