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Pay Equity Litigation Trends

By Victoria Woodin Chavey and Ana C. Shields
August 01, 2017

New requirements and prohibitions on compensation practices around the country are making pay equity a hot topic. These obligations seek to address the “gender pay gap,” which the latest reports estimate is at a little over 20%, with women across all occupations having median earnings around 78% of the median earnings of men. Although some dispute whether there is in fact a gender pay gap, its existence is so widely accepted that many jurisdictions are taking steps to promote pay equity. This article provides an overview of trends in pay equity litigation.

Background

In 2016 alone, several states, including California, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York, implemented new pay equity legislation that imposes stricter standards on employers. These come with severe consequences for noncompliance. For example, the New York legislature amended the state Labor Law, effective 2016, to bar employers from prohibiting employees from discussing, disclosing, or asking about their compensation. This pay transparency provision (designed to facilitate employees' sharing of pay data and to enhance the likelihood that pay disparities are discovered in the regular course of employee interactions and cannot be kept hidden by the employer) is comparable to newly added features of the fair pay laws in many other states. The New York Labor Law amendments also significantly increase available liquidated damages, to three times the amount of wages due.

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