Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Equal Pay Edition


A few weeks ago we had posts dedicated to labor law and HR related matters.  Following several equal pay related posts over the past few weeks (and the fact that I came across several other equal pay related articles this week), I thought it appropriate to dedicate this post to that very topic.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Jackson Mississippi City Council Approves Equal Pay Ordinance

A few weeks ago, the Jackson Mississippi City Council unanimously approved an equal pay ordinance for city workers, set to take effect on June 14th.  Of note, the ordinance prohibits city job applicants from being asked about their salary history as well as requiring city workers to be paid based on (and not deviate) from the city's official plan.  Private employers in Jackson are not covered under this ordinance; only city employees.  With that being said, this is a broad step forward for city workers.



Sarah Elms at The Blade wrote an article earlier this month in which she provided an update on the equal pay ordinance currently being considered by the Toledo City Council.  In essence, the ordinance seeks to bar Toledo employers from asking applicants about their salary history, which would instead have employers set an applicant's salary based upon their experience (rather than their gender.)  There is some disagreement among the City Council, with some suggesting this ordinance would help curb the wage gap while others have argued it would impose an unnecessary level of regulation on employers in Toledo.  Whether there is enough support among the Toledo City Council to get this equal pay ordinance across the finish line remains to be seen.  Stay tuned.



Recently, by a 9 - 6 vote, the Louisiana House Labor Committee rejected bills that would have let local authorities determine their own minimum wage rates and implement equal pay measures.  Although there has been widespread support among Democrats in the state to approve such measures, the particular bills could not find enough support to advance.  With that being said, with equal pay becoming an even more hot button issue (due in no small part to the upcoming 2020 Presidential election), I would not be surprised to see similar legislation be introduced in the Louisiana Legislature sooner rather than later.



Speaking in broad terms, equal pay laws should achieve their intended affect of bringing about pay equality in the workplace.  However, as Quentin Fottrell at MarketWatch writes, there are some drawbacks that have been reported.  Of note, a recent study has found that salary transparency has led some employers to lower overall salaries rather than lifting a woman's salary to the level of their male co-workers.  That should be nothing short of concerning as women in the workplace might appear to be increasing their salary when it is actually instead a matter of employers lowering salaries across the board.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more