What is Equal Pay Act?
The Federal Equal Pay Act requires that employees performing substantially similar jobs under similar working conditions requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility, must be paid equally regardless of sex. An employee may have a wage discrimination claim if there is evidence that sex was a factor in determining wages, even if the employee cannot prove equality of skill, effort and responsibility, or substantial similarity of jobs as required by the Equal Pay Act. Other laws prohibit discrimination in the "terms or conditions" of employment and offer a remedy for wage discrimination on bases other than gender.
The law specifically provides:
“No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs[,] the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex.”
The United States Supreme Court has indicated the purpose of the Act is as follows:
“to remedy what was perceived to be a serious and endemic problem of employment discrimination in private industry – the fact that the wage structure of “many segments of American industry has been based on an ancient but outmoded belief that a man, because of his role in society, should be paid more than a woman even though his duties are the same.”
As such, it is strictly unlawful for an employer to pay a women less than a man based upon the mindset that men should be paid more for similar work.
The Law Firm of David A. Young, LLC represents executives and employees whose rights under the Equal Pay Act have been violated. Attorney David Young has been certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as a Specialist in the area of Labor and Employment Law. Attorney Young has also been recognized as a Super Lawyer in the State of Ohio for the years 2009 through 2014.
If you feel your rights under the Equal Pay Act have been violated, The Law Firm of David A. Young, LLC provides a free, no-obligation consultation.
