Sponsors (5)
The bill increases remedies and jury access for many discrimination plaintiffs—improving compensation and procedural rights—while raising litigation costs, uncertainty, and potentially narrowing wage‑related relief for age-discrimination claimants, shifting a trade-off between stronger victim remedies and greater burdens on employers and the courts.
People suing under 42 U.S.C. 1981a (primarily racial-ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities) can recover compensatory damages for past and future pecuniary losses, increasing plaintiffs' ability to obtain monetary relief for economic harms.
People suing under 42 U.S.C. 1981a (primarily racial-ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities) can recover expressly listed non‑pecuniary harms (emotional pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life), likely increasing awards for discrimination victims.
Any party in a 42 U.S.C. 1981a action (plaintiffs and defendants) may demand a jury trial, giving litigants access to jury fact-finding and the potential for jury awards.
Small businesses, employers, and consumers may face higher litigation exposure and larger damage awards because broadened compensatory and non-pecuniary damages increase the monetary stakes in discrimination suits.
Defendants and taxpayers may face longer, more expensive cases because giving any party a right to a jury trial increases trial complexity, time, and litigation costs.
Financial institutions, insurers, and small employers may face greater uncertainty in estimating likely awards and insuring or pricing employment litigation because broader damages categories make outcomes harder to predict.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Clarifies compensatory damages and creates an explicit statutory jury-trial demand in civil-rights law and aligns ADEA remedies with Title VII relief.
Official title: To amend section 1977A of the Revised Statutes of 1977 to equalize the remedies available under that section and to amend the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 to provide any legal or equitable relief available under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Introduced June 3, 2026 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress June 3, 2026
Makes compensatory damages and jury-trial rights clearer and broader in federal civil-rights law and aligns Age Discrimination in Employment Act remedies with the kinds of relief available under Title VII. The bill revises the statutory list of recoverable compensatory damages for certain civil-rights claims, creates an explicit right for any party to demand a jury trial, and changes ADEA remedial text to incorporate Title VII types of legal and equitable relief rather than treating certain recoveries as unpaid wages or overtime.