Fair Pay Act of 2026

The power to regulate commerce among the several States vests in Congress the authority to address practices in enterprises engaged therein that burden or obstruct such commerce, including discriminatory wage payments which distort labor markets and impede the free flow of commerce essential to the Union. Amending existing labor standards legislation to prohibit such discrimination falls squarely within this enumerated power and the necessary means to execute it, as a vigorous federal regulation of commerce is indispensable to national prosperity and unity against the weaknesses of state paroc…

The proposed amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act seeks to regulate private wage agreements between employers and employees on the basis of sex, race, or national origin. Such regulation exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress, as no provision in the Constitution grants the federal government authority over intrastate labor contracts or private associations. These matters pertain to individual liberty and the reserved powers of the states or the people, as affirmed by the Tenth Amendment. The Commerce Clause empowers Congress to regulate commerce among the states, but it does not extend…

The proposed amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act seeks to prohibit discrimination in the payment of wages on account of sex, race, or national origin. While Congress possesses the enumerated power to regulate Commerce among the several States, this measure exceeds that authority by intruding upon the regulation of private contracts and labor relations, which are not interstate commerce but matters of local police power reserved to the States. Such prohibitions dictate the terms of compensation based on personal characteristics, extending federal authority into the indefinite powers of th…

The proposed amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, prohibiting discrimination in wage payments on account of sex, race, or national origin, falls within Congress's enumerated power to regulate Commerce among the several States, as granted by Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution. In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), this Court held that commerce comprehends not merely traffic but intercourse for purposes of trade, extending to economic activities substantially affecting interstate exchange, such as employment contracts and wage structures. The regulation of wages to prevent discrimina…