California Gov. Brown to sign expanded fair pay legislation

By JANIE HAR
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Female employees in California are poised to get new tools to challenge gender-based wage gaps and receive protection from discrimination and retaliation if they ask questions about how much other people earn.

A bill recently passed by the Legislature and that Gov. Jerry Brown has indicated he will sign won’t suddenly put all women’s salaries on par with men’s or prod employers to freely disclose what every employee makes, which could make it easier for workers to mount pay discrimination claims.

But the legislation expands what supporters call an outdated state equal pay law and goes further than federal law, placing the burden on the employer to prove a man’s higher pay is based on factors other than gender and allowing workers to sue if they are paid less than someone with a different job title who does “substantially similar” work.

So, a supermarket clerk could challenge her pay based on what a male clerk might earn at the same supermarket 10 miles away. Or housekeepers at a hotel could challenge their pay based on what janitors make at the same hotel, arguing that they do similar work. The pending legislation allows them to learn pay details from asking clerks or janitors at other locations, again, without fear of blowback from management.

“The requirement that they be in jobs that are identical has really hindered women from bringing suits and has failed to provide appropriate incentive for employers to make sure they’re not engaged in subtle discrimination,” said Deborah Rhode, a law professor at Stanford Law School and expert on gender discrimination.

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[Source]: 12 News