Bill blocks courts from using wage gaps as evidence in discrimination cases

What it does

This bill prohibits federal courts from using race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation in calculating a plaintiff's projected future earnings in civil damages awards. It directs the Labor Department and Attorney General to develop guidance for forensic economists and states on bias-free earnings tables, and requires the Judicial Conference to study current damages practices and report findings to Congress.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a prohibition on a specific damages-calculation method in civil litigation. While framed as anti-bias, it functions as a restriction on remedies available to plaintiffs, particularly in discrimination cases where earning disparities are empirically tied to protected characteristics.

What the text implies

• The bill's carve-out in Section 3(b) preserves damages 'based on the fact that the plaintiff is a member of a protected class' and 'for the purposes of Federal civil rights laws,' but the operative prohibition in 3(a) blocks the primary mechanism by which such damages are calculated—future earnings. This creates a gap: a plaintiff can be awarded damages 'for' discrimination but cannot use the earn
• By prohibiting race/ethnicity/gender in future-earnings tables, the bill may prevent courts from accounting for documented wage gaps (e.g., the gender wage gap, racial wage gaps) even when those gaps are causally linked to the defendant's discriminatory conduct. A plaintiff harmed by discrimination may recover nominal damages but not the actual economic loss.
• The directive to develop 'inclusive' earnings tables (Section 4) assumes that removing demographic data from earnings projections eliminates bias, but it may instead obscure real economic disparities and force courts to use generic earnings data that underestimate the harm to members of groups that earn less on average.
• The bill applies to federal courts only, but Section 4 directs the Labor Department and Attorney General to develop guidance for states, creating pressure for state courts to adopt the same restriction even where state law or state constitutional equal-protection provisions might permit or require accounting for real earnings disparities.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Plaintiffs in civil cases—particularly those suing for discrimination—lose the ability to recover damages based on documented earning disparities tied to race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. While the bill frames this as eliminating bias, it actually prevents courts from accounting for real economic harms that flow from discrimination, even when those harms are empirically measurable and causally linked to the defendant's conduct.

Who stands to gain

• defendants in civil litigation (reduced damages exposure)
• defendants in employment discrimination and tort cases (lower liability)

Named in the bill

U.S. federal courts, Secretary of Labor, Attorney General, Judicial Conference of the United States, Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Federal Judicial Center, forensic economists, state courts

Where it stands

• Jun 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Jun 26, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $80,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 10 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Cory Booker, the sponsor, reported $495,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Bank Policy Institute (fka the Financial Services Roundtable) — $80,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 18, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.