Court: Employers Can Pay Women Less Than Men Based on Their Past Salaries

An employer can pay a woman less than a man for the same work if the man was paid more at his previous job and if the employer had a reasonable policy to justify reliance on past salaries, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

Basing wages on an employee’s previous pay level does not violate federal laws against sex discrimination, even though it may have the effect of maintaining a wage gap between men and women, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The same policy could also be used to pay women more than men, if a woman’s past salary was higher.

By Bob Egelko

Full Story: http://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/tns-equal-pay-ruling.html