The bill works best when taken as a full package. While I'd be open to clarifying the role of the actual SoIA to avoid overloading them, the different components of the bill are important. There does need to be more research into this issue and greater national understanding and transparency on it(and I was disappointed by dismissive comments that I found uninformed). The steps in this bill are appropriate, and a gutted bill would be less effective at reducing the gender pay gap as there are many contributing issues. I believe the expenditure and funding appropriated to this bill is not unreasonable, and that this bill is beneficial to Atlasia.
Finally, I'd like to confirm that there is a serious problem of a gender pay gap. Currently, women are disadvantaged financially compared to men. I don't want women to be treated better than men and paid more than men, I want to level the playing field so everyone is treated fairly regardless of gender, and given the uneven starting positions the provisions of this bill can't simply make both genders better off but do have to be targeted to ensure fairness in the future. Currently, women in Atlasia working full-time on average earn $0.80 to every dollar earned by a man, and at the current rate of change pay equity won't be reached until 2059(
link). The gap is even greater when broken down by race, Black women make $0.63 for every dollar, while Latina women earn $0.54 for every dollar.
Notably, 83% of women do believe there is a pay gap. There is still a pay gap even when accounting for different choices such as whether to raise a family and who takes on the primary family role. What is pretty clear is that there is some level of pay-gap, which both discrimination and differences in how pay negotiations go contribute to. This is a significant problem, the average $0.20 gap comes to on average $10,000 a year, and even in lower-paying professions comes to around $5,000. This is a serious disadvantage and an unfair one, and one that we need to take seriously and address.