South Carolina H 3512: South Carolina State Employee Equal Pay for Equal Work

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3512 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 05, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3512

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE 
"SOUTH CAROLINA STATE EMPLOYEE EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK ACT" BY ADDING ARTICLE 
12 TO CHAPTER 11, TITLE 8 SO AS TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION BY GENDER REGARDLESS 
OF GENDER IN COMPENSATION PAID STATE EMPLOYEES FOR SAME KIND, GRADE, AND 
QUALITY OF STATE EMPLOYMENT, TO PROVIDE DEFINITIONS, EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROHIBIT 
SPECIFIC EMPLOYER ACTIONS WITH REGARD TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF THIS ACT, AND TO 
PROVIDE ADMINISTRATIVE AND, WHERE APPLICABLE, JUDICIAL REMEDIES FOR VIOLATIONS.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Chapter 11, Title 8 of the S.C. Code is amended by 
adding:

Article 12

South Carolina State Employee Equal Pay

 Section 
8-11-1310. This article may be cited as the "South Carolina State Employee 
Equal Pay for Equal Work Act."

 Section 
8-11-1320. It is the public policy of this State that an employee who performs 
public service for the State regardless of gender is entitled to be paid the 
same compensation for that service, as is paid to another who performs the same 
kind, grade, and quality of service, and a distinction in compensation may not 
be made because of gender.

 Section 
8-11-1330. As used in this article:

 (1) 
"Commission" means the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission.

 (2) 
"Employee" means an individual who is employed to work forty or more hours a 
week and who is employed by the employer.

 (3) 
"Employer" means any department, office, division, agency, commission, board, 
committee, institution, or other organizational unit of this State.

 Section 
8-11-1340. (A) An employer may not 
discriminate against an employee on the basis of gender by paying wages to an 
employee at a rate less than that paid within the same agency to another 
employee of a different gender for the same or substantially similar work on 
jobs in which the employee's performance requires equal skill, effort, 
education, and responsibility and that are performed under similar working 
conditions, including time worked in the position.

 (B) 
Nothing in subsection (A) prohibits the payment of different wage rates to 
employees when the payment is made pursuant to any of the following:

 (1) 
a seniority system;

 (2) 
a merit system;

 (3) 
a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or

 (4) 
a differential based on a bona fide factor other than gender including, but not 
limited to, education, training, or experience, if both:

 (a) 
the employer demonstrates this factor is related to the job position in 
question; and

 (b) 
no alternative employment practice would serve the same legitimate business 
purpose without producing a compensation differential.

 (C) 
An employer who is paying wages in violation of this article, in order to 
comply with this article, may not reduce the wages of any other employee.

 Section 
8-11-1350. It is unlawful for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny 
the exercise of, or attempt to exercise, any right provided under this article. 
It is unlawful for any employer to discriminate, retaliate, or take any adverse 
employment action including, but not limited to, termination or in any other 
manner discriminate against any employee for inquiring about disclosing, 
comparing, or otherwise discussing the employee's wages or the wages of any 
other employee, or aiding or encouraging any other employee to exercise rights 
pursuant to this article.

 Section 
8-11-1360. It is unlawful for an employer subject to 
this article to discriminate, retaliate, or take any adverse employment action 
including, but not limited to, termination against an employee because, in 
exercising or attempting to exercise the employee's rights under this article, 
the employee:

 (1) 
has filed any complaint or has instituted or caused to be instituted any 
proceeding to enforce the employee's rights under this article;

 (2) 
has provided or will provide any information in connection with any inquiry or 
proceeding relating to any right afforded to an employee pursuant to this 
article; or

 (3) 
has testified or will testify in any inquiry or proceeding relating to any 
right afforded to an employee pursuant to this article.

 Section 
8-11-1370. (A) An employee who in 
good faith believes that the employee's employer is in violation of this 
article shall submit written notice of the alleged violation to the employer. 
An employer who receives the written notice from an employee has sixty days 
from receipt of the notice to investigate the matter and remedy any violation 
of this article. If an employer remedies the violation in a man