Legislation working its way through the House of Representatives would repeal a Dodd-Frank mandated rule demanding that companies compare, and disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the ratio of median employee pay to CEO compensation.

H.R. 1135, “The Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act,” filed by Rep. Bill Huizenga, passed in the House Financial Services Committee with bipartisan support last week. It seeks to repeal Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act, the requirement for compensation disclosures, on the grounds that doing so is “unworkable and costly.”

Huizenga, with his bill, argues that the Dodd-Frank requirement could be interpreted as requiring all public companies to determine the compensation of all of its employees around the world. “It creates an unclear and burdensome reporting requirement that even after three years the SEC has been unable to properly address its scope and definition," he said in a statement. He noted that even a namesake of the Dodd-Frank Act, Barney Frank, has described the demand as problematic. The language was a late addition to the legislative package by Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

“This regulation does not take into account the fact that companies are located across the globe,” Huizenga said in a statement. “It doesn't specify if the calculation includes health care or other non-salary benefits such as college tuition assistance, or even, to a crazy extent, if somebody has a parking privilege. It does not account for full- or part-time employment. How are you going to calculate that part-time cleaning crew that comes in every evening? All these questions hang out there.”

As the bill heads to the full House, and potentially the Senate, its critics are pushing back. Among those supporting the Dodd-Frank Act's original proposal is Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national, state, and local groups that support financial reforms.

Repealing the median pay comparison “will only serve to protect overpaid CEOs from embarrassment by allowing them to hide shameful pay disparities within their companies and continue to leave investors without meaningful compensation disclosure,” it wrote. The intent of the rule was “to give investors better tools to gauge their company's compensation practices and whether they are investing in their employees and creating good jobs, or only enriching a few top executives.”

“Part of the CEO pay problem is that the existing disclosure rules encourage companies to focus on what other companies pay their CEOs,” the coalition's members added. “Because CEOs believe that they should be paid above average, this “group-think” compensation process leads to ever-spiraling pay increases for CEOs.”