Sacramento State Capitol building on Capitol Way (Photo: Jason Doiy/ Recorder)

An Assembly fiscal committee on Thursday killed pay equity legislation that would have required employers to share salary data with the state.

Senate Bill 1284, co-sponsored by the California Employment Lawyers Association, would have mandated that companies with more than 100 workers tell the Department of Fair Employment and Housing how much employees are paid, broken down by job category and gender and ethnicity.

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson

The bill's author, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, said the legislation would give employers “a chance to self-examine their pay practices” while allowing the state to track progress toward equal pay. The reports would have been confidential and not subject to state open records laws.

The bill's introduction followed the Trump administration's decision in 2017 to scrap a proposed rule by President Barack Obama that would have required covered companies to submit employee pay data reports to the federal government.

Business groups fought the bill's passage—the California Chamber of Commerce at one point placed SB 1284 on its dreaded “job-killer list”—arguing that the aggregate pay data would mislead analysts. Pay differences, for example, could be a result of the different numbers of years workers have been employed by the company, not discriminatory reasons, the critics of the bill argued.

Despite the opposition, legislative support from Democrats had moved the bill through both houses this summer—until Thursday. The Assembly Appropriations Committee shelved SB 1284 without explanation.

Gov. Jerry Brown had not taken a public position on the bill, although he did veto similar legislation last year that would have required large employers to submit annual reports on gender wage differentials.

Another gender equity bill by Jackson, SB 826, did advance out of the Assembly's fiscal committee Thursday. That legislation would require California-located companies to have a minimum number of women on their boards of directors.