Brazil to fine companies for paying women less than men for same work

Brazil’s Congress passed a bill imposing fines on companies paying women lower wages than men for the same work. The measure approved Tuesday is expected to be signed into law by Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff.

It is already illegal for Brazilian businesses to discriminate against women, but it is a law that has largely been reliant on corporate compliance. The new measure looks to assess fines, which can be as much as five times the cumulative difference in the salaries during the entire time a woman is employed by a company. The Brazilian government’s statistics agency has found that on average, women earn only 70 percent of what their male counterparts take home.

Read more: The Washington Post