Tom Tiffany has a disastrous anti-worker record, including opposing equal pay for women and supporting child labor

It will always be a bit startling that the Republican Party picked Tom Tiffany to be their nominee, who has one of the worst anti-worker and anti-union records in legislative history. 

Tiffany, a 68-year-old Republican Congressman who previously served in the State Legislature, has voted numerous times in the last 15 years against workers, including opposing equal pay for women and by weakening child labor laws. 

The Milwaukee Courier will highlight Tiffany’s extreme labor record over the coming weeks ahead of the general election on Nov. 3, including how he voted on workers’ rights, right-to-work, pensions, gender equality and wages.

The Democratic candidate is Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who earlier this week became the first Black person to be a major party’s nominee for Wisconsin governor. 

Tiffany has been out of step with his party on several issues, including most recently his policy in regards to the Department of Natural Resources. But more so, he is often opposed to bipartisan bills and almost never crosses party lines to vote. He is considered one of the most conservative members of Congress. 

Tom Tiffany voted against equal pay for women 

In April 2021, Tiffany voted in the U.S. House against The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would require employers being sued for discrimination to demonstrate that a difference in pay between employees is based on a business-related factor other than sex, such as education, training or experience. 

The bill would have prohibited employers from retaliating against employees involved in lawsuits under fair labor standards law and would have made it illegal to require salary history during a hiring process.

One Republican and all Democrats voted for the bill. The Democrats have been trying to make the bill become law since 2008. 

Tiffany also specifically voted against an amendment to direct the Labor Secretary to study the gender wage gap among young workers and establish a task force to coordinate efforts to enforce equal pay laws.

All the Democrats and two Republicans supported the amendment. 

“I applaud the House of Representatives for passing the Paycheck Fairness Act,” former President Joe Biden said at the time. “Closing the gender pay gap is more than just an economic imperative — it’s a moral imperative as well.”

Biden added that a full passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act by Congress would address the wage gap by “closing loopholes that have allowed employers to justify gender pay disparities, strengthening provisions for holding employers accountable for systemic pay discrimination, and helping level the playing field for women and people of color by making it easier for workers to challenge pay disparities as a group.

“Equal pay is about justice, fairness, and who we are as a nation, it makes all of us stronger, and it represents what America is truly about.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some business groups came out in opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act, which died in the filibuster-proof U.S. Senate. 

Women in the U.S. earn about 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. The disparities are even worse for women of color. 

Tom Tiffany voted to weaken child labor laws in Wisconsin

In May 2017, Tiffany voted for AB25, which changed child labor laws so that minors 16 and older no longer have to get a permit from the state to be employed. 

According to the bill, “Prior law generally prohibited a minor of any age from being employed in any occupation unless a child labor permit authorizing the employment was issued by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) or a permit officer, subject to certain exceptions. One of these exceptions is that a minor working in a ‘street trade’ must hold a street trade permit rather than a child labor permit. Street trades generally include selling or distributing items, such as newspapers, on the street, in public places, or from house-to-house. The Act eliminates the requirement that a minor 16 years of age or older obtain a child labor permit or street trade permit, but does not change the permitting requirements described above with regard to minors under 16 years of age.”

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the state, has said the legislation gave employers “direct access to child labor” by eliminating parental sign-off for 16- and 17-year-olds. 

As predicted, Republicans attempted to take it a step further in 2024 by allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to work in Wisconsin without a permit, but Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the bill. 

Tiffany’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.