With the new California fair-pay law, which became effective January 1, employers are now scrambling to find out if there are any disparity in the pay between men and women who work for them.
According to the Kansas City Star, the new law applies to all employers who have people working for them in the State of California, despite the size and the location where it is based. Employers are now reviewing their pay data to make sure there are no obvious imbalances between the pay of women and men.
The new law aims to eliminate gender inequality in the workplace by removing the traditional pay gaps between the two genders. Just last month, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon approved an executive order requiring Missouri agencies in his scope to fix gender pay imbalances. The new California law takes this rule a step further by requiring employers to pay back the salaries to the employees including interest and damages if they are proven to have violated the law.
The Global Legal Post reported that there are many who commend the law as it brings fair remuneration for women closer to reality. Basically, the law requires employers to demonstrate "equal pay for similar work" among their workers. However, there is much uncertainty as to what "similar work" truly means.
"It has very strong anti-retaliation provisions," said Equal Rights Advocates executive director Noreen Farrell in a report by Market Place. "So this law makes clear that you look beyond job titles at what people actually do."
University of California Davis School of Law professor Martha West said pay disparities are usually due to 'male- or female-dominated job categories,' and not so much on the unequal pay between men and women. "It will take several court decisions and agency decisions to work out how broadly the term 'similar' will be defined," said West.
