With California’s unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, jobseekers have to look harder than ever these days. For those lucky enough to receive a job offer, many are finding the offer to come with a lower starting pay than in previous years. And while businesses are suffering too in today’s economy, employers should beware that taking advantage of the competitive job market to lower starting salaries can lead to inadvertent pay discrimination.
Under the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the recently enacted Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, employers are prohibited from paying one gender more than the other for performing essentially the same work. Today, intentional pay discrimination is fairly rare. Nonetheless, experts agree that women today earn on average only 0.78 cents for every dollar earned by a man in an equivalent position. So, how does it happen?
The HR Management & Compliance Report: How To Comply with California Wage & Hour Law,
explains everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the
state’s complex and ever-changing rules, laws, and regulations in this
area. Coverage on bonuses, meal and rest breaks, overtime, alternative
workweeks, final paychecks, and more.
Isolating the cause of pay gaps isn’t easy. Historical pay differences, traditional job allocation, and disparate educational opportunities are all factors. But, so are haphazard pay practices. For example, Lily Ledbetter—whose Supreme Court case prompted Congress to pass the Fair Pay Act earlier this year—began earning less than her male counterparts more than twenty years before she filed her lawsuit. Ledbetter’s employer simply never acted to remedy the pay gap, and may not have even taken note that a pay disparity existed.
Pay gaps can also emerge in hard economic times, when employers lower starting salaries in response to a competitive job market. If a man hired a year ago earns significantly more than a woman hired today to perform essentially the same work, and having similar backgrounds, the result may ultimately be a pay discrimination lawsuit. While the real motive for the woman’s lower starting salary is to take advantage of the current market and reduce overall costs, the difference in the two workers’ salaries can still appear to be discriminatory.
Even though men and women alike may be more willing nowadays to accept lower starting salaries, taking the time to ensure that pay disparities don’t arise along gender lines will help protect against future legal action.