For decades now, the California Equal Pay Act has prohibited an employer from paying its employees less than employees of the opposite sex for equal work. However, in 2015, Governor Brown signed the California Fair Pay Act, which strengthened the Equal Pay Act in a number of ways and signaled California’s commitment to achieving real gender pay equity.
The new changes were effective January 1, 2016, and most the significant changes to the Equal Pay Act are:
Requiring equal pay for employees who perform “substantially similar work,” when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility.
Eliminating the requirement that the employees being compared work at the “same establishment.”
Making it more difficult for employers to justify inequities in pay through the “bona fide factor other than sex” defense.
Ensuring that any legitimate factors relied upon by the employer for pay inequities are applied reasonably and account for the entire pay difference.
Explicitly stating that retaliation against employees who seek to enforce the law is illegal, and making it illegal for employers to prohibit employees from discussing or inquiring about their co-workers’ wages.
Extending the number of years that employers must maintain wage and other employment-related records from two years to three years.
Each year since January 1, 2016, has brought further amendments to the equal Pay Act. Effective January 1, 2017, race and ethnicity were added as protected categories. California law now prohibits an employer from paying its employees less than employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work. The provisions, protections, procedures, and remedies relating to race- or ethnicity-based claims are identical to the ones relating to sex. In addition, employers are prohibited from using prior salary to justify any sex-, race-, or ethnicity-based pay difference.
Each year since January 1, 2016, has brought further amendments to the equal Pay Act. Effective January 1, 2017, race and ethnicity were added as protected categories. California law now prohibits an employer from paying its employees less than employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work. The provisions, protections, procedures, and remedies relating to race- or ethnicity-based claims are identical to the ones relating to sex. In addition, employers are prohibited from using prior salary to justify any sex-, race-, or ethnicity-based pay difference.
Effective January 1, 2018, the Equal Pay Act now covers public employers. Also effective January 1, 2018, and on January 1, 2019, Labor Code section 432.3 was enacted (and later clarified) to prohibit employers, with one exception, from seeking applicants’ salary history information and requiring employers to supply pay scales upon the request of an applicant.