State Pay Equity Compliance for Employers: Closing the Pay Gap and Conducting Privileged Pay Audits

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In 2018, at least 38 states have introduced pay equity bills to address the complex causes of the pay gap that exists between male and female earners. Further, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced in 2017 that pay equity would be one of its six essential priorities from 2018 through 2021. With these growing efforts to close the pay gap, employers should examine their pay practices to ensure compliance with these new laws.

As states shore up their pay equity laws and workers grow more aware of their rights, employers are increasingly turning to confidential pay audits to examine their payrolls and pay practices for illegal wage disparities between genders, races and the groups of protected employees. Pay audits are an excellent tool if performed correctly; without them, employers risk failing to detect unlawful pay gaps that may correlate to factors like gender, race or ethnicity.

While pay equity laws vary by jurisdiction, they generally bar employers from paying workers differently for comparable or substantially similar work unless that disparity is justified under the law. When a state passes a pay equity law, employers must ensure that their hiring processes, standards for promotion, and compensation-setting policies and practices are compliant.

Listen as our distinguished panelists discuss recent legislative trends in state equal pay laws, and how employers and their counsel can spot illegal pay gaps by conducting a pay audit. Additionally, our speakers will analyze strategies for employers to achieve and maintain compliance with equal pay laws after identifying an unlawful pay gap.