Since our last post on this topic, pay transparency laws were enacted or became effective in four states, the District of Columbia, and several municipalities. The jurisdictions that require or will soon require some form of pay transparency now include:
| States | Municipalities |
|---|---|
| California | Cincinnati, OH |
| Colorado | Jersey City, NJ |
| Connecticut | Ithaca, NY |
| Hawaii | New York |
The new year is here and brings a number of states with new pay transparency requirements for employers, some of which impact job postings. Proponents believe these laws will level the playing field, allowing all candidates access to the same general salary information and enabling them to negotiate more effectively.
Currently, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland
For the past three years, Mississippi remained the only state in the country that did not have a bill prohibiting pay discrimination based on gender. This all changed on April 20, 2022, when Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 770, also known as the “Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act,” into law.
An Equal Pay Act plaintiff must show that employees of the opposite sex were paid different wages for equal work. Pretty simple — right? However, there are many factors that go into deciding what is “equal work” or whether the difference in wages is really tied to sex. In Jennifer Joy Freyd vs. University
In hiring employees, can you just give them a salary bump or must you look at their soon-to-be coworkers to decide the correct amount? This is a hotly debated issue right now, and, as with many things, it depends on where you live. In Rizo v. Yovino, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, the Ninth
The EEOC has released its annual report on the number of discrimination charges filed across the country. As has been seen over the last few years, the total number of charges continued to decline –72,675 in 2019 as opposed to 76,418 in 2018. While sex and race continue to be popular choices for charges, the
In a decision that could have employers rethinking how they offer employees a severance agreement, in McClellan v. Midwest Machining, Inc. the Sixth Circuit held that former employees seeking to void severance agreements do not have to give the severance pay back before filing suit under Title VII or the Equal Pay Act.
In setting a new employee’s pay, what do you consider? Past experience? Check. Education? Check. Salary at the last job? Not so fast. In a recent Ninth Circuit decision, the court framed the question as follows:
Can an employer justify a wage differential between male and female employees by relying on prior salary?
The
When you promote someone into a position, do you have to pay him what you paid his predecessor? As with so many things – it depends. Can you pay less if the promotee has less experience and a lower prior salary than the predecessor? Maybe. However, if the new promotee is a female replacing a
Setting a new employee’s pay based on what he or she made at a prior job is a fairly common practice—but now an illegal one in Philadelphia, PA. You heard right, Philadelphia has banned questions about salary history. This local law follows a Massachusetts law (similar but not identical) aimed at closing the pay