The Colorado Pay Equity Commission got new life Thursday when a House committee approved reauthorizing it on a 7-6 party line vote.
But besides a divide along party lines, members of the committee split on whether the commission had done any meaningful work on the issue of men earning more than women, enough so that it would be worth spending taxpayers’ money to continue.
Democrats backed the bill supporting the previously unfunded volunteer board, after Republicans in a Senate committee last week.
If the House bill clears the chamber’s appropriations committee and a vote on the floor, it would set up a showdown between the Republican-led upper chamber and the Democratic House in order to get the bill to the governor.
The commission is set to expire in July. When it originated in 2010, lawmakers invested no tax money. The 11-member board of appointees rarely met, frequently did not have a quorum to vote on issues, and did a poor job of publicizing its work or distributing the information it had about pay equity and how to overcome it, according to testimony of opponents and supporters in the hearing.
The House bill to extend the commission indefinitely would add a full-time staff member at a cost of about $50,000 a year. That salary would be offset by any grants or donations the commission received.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, acknowledged the commission’s flawed performance, but said a staff member would straighten out those problems. She said the commission is the only place in the state she knew of where meaningful discussions about pay parity were taking place.
“Voting to eliminate this commission removes the ability to continue that conversation,” she said.
Loren Furman, senior vice president of state and federal relations for the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, said that is was time to stop taking about pay equity and instead do something about it.
She noted that the commission in 2010 was created as the result of a 2007 study on pay inequality.
“Instead of repeating the same steps over and over, why aren’t we doing something about it?” she said, adding that the commission had never offered information to CACI, a 50-year-old organization with about 15,000 employers in its statewide membership.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
