Alabama and Mississippi are the only two states left in the country without a statewide equal pay law.

One state lawmaker wants the Legislature to change that before the 2018 session concludes.

State Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile, is sponsoring HB368, the "Gender Pay Gap" bill, which would prohibit employers from paying employees of the opposite sex lower wages for the same work and responsibility. Employers can be sued, under the proposal, if an employee was fired based on sex discrimination.

"Nearly every state has a law prohibiting employers differently based solely on gender," Clarke said during a news conference Monday at the Mobile County Democratic headquarters.

Clarke added: "I'm disappointed. I would have thought we would have passed a long long before now."

Indeed, Alabama is one of the last remaining states to pass an equal pay law that defines, through law, a means to eliminate pay differentials based on sex. And it could be the last to do so: Mississippi lawmakers have debated their own equal pay law this spring, with Republicans questioning the need for a state law arguing that federal law offers enough protections.

In Alabama, Clarke said a lack of state law is magnified given that famed equal pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter is a native of Jacksonville in Calhoun County.

Ledbetter's eight-year legal odyssey against Goodyear Tire, her former employer, eventually led to former President Barack Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The law expands the statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit.

Clarke said she hopes to have Ledbetter in Montgomery when the legislation surfaces before Alabama House State Government Committee on March 21.

The committee's chairman, State Rep. Mark Tuggle, R-Alexander City, said he plans to have Clarke's proposal on the group's agenda next week. The proposal, filed on Feb. 1, has 27 co-sponsors, both Republicans and Democrats.

Clarke might have political momentum on her side. The #MeToo movement has become a nationwide slogan of the anti-sexual harassment movement, and a record-number of women are running for political office in 2018.

"I think those are important factors and they will help to get this bill out of the committee and passed," Clarke said. "Timing is everything because of those factors, and the excitement and enthusiasm and the eye-opening experiences of information from the #MeToo movement will help us finally get legislation like this in the state of Alabama."

Leevones Fisher, president of the Alabama chapter of the American Association of University Women - a nonprofit agency that fights for equity for women and girls - said she's hopeful the legislation can pass and lead to ideas surfacing in Alabama "that chips away" at the gender pay gap.

AAUW statistics show that in 2016, women working full-time in the U.S. typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid. Alabama ranks 44th in the gender pay gap, with women paid 74 percent of what men are paid, statistics show.