Jeffrey M. Landes, Member of the Firm, and Ann Knuckles Mahoney, Associate, in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s New York office, co-authored an article in The Lexis Practice Advisor Journal, titled “Conducting Pay Equity Audits.”
Following is an excerpt:
Although the EPA has been in effect for 50 years, it gained renewed momentum with the Obama administration’s creation of the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, composed of members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Justice, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Labor. The task force has aggressively pursued employers who have violated the EPA’s requirements and has collected significant amounts of money for victims of sex-based wage discrimination. While it remains to be seen what efforts the current White House administration takes concerning equal pay, the momentum has continued with state equal pay legislation. Several states have amended their equal pay laws to broaden their scope beyond what the EPA requires.
Virtually all employers must comply with the EPA and many, depending on their size and the state in which they are located, must also comply with other federal and state laws regarding equal pay. To limit exposure for equal pay violations, employers should adopt policies and procedures that satisfy the EPA and other federal and state requirements and help them meet their equal pay obligations and/or existing audit requirements.