Because the judge who authored the ruling died before the decision was issued, the Ninth Circuit erred in counting him as a member of the majority, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Yovino v. Rizo, No. 18-272 (Feb. 25, 2019). On this technicality, the Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit ruling that prior salary alone or in combination with other factors cannot justify a wage differential between male and female employees under the Equal Pay…

Joining New York City, Albany County, and Westchester County, Suffolk County has become the latest jurisdiction in New York to pass a bill that prevents employers from inquiring into the salary and benefits history of job applicants. Designed to establish pay equality and to “break the cycle of wage discrimination,” the Restricting Information on Salaries and Earnings Act, or RISE Act, would prohibit any employer in Suffolk County from requesting or seeking the wage history…

OFCCP’s new Directive on how the OFCCP will review federal contractors’ compensation practices during a compliance evaluation stresses a commitment to transparency and outlines how the Agency it will review data, group employees for analytical purposes, perform statistical analyses, and communicate findings with federal contractors. Data Request and Review Procedures During a compliance evaluation, contractors provide employee-level data to the Agency for review. According to the Directive, the Agency will review the data to ensure…

On March 26, 2018, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill that prevents local governments from regulating the questions employers may ask of applicants during job interviews. The bill amends a 2015 law that prohibited local governments from banning salary history inquiries on job applications. With this amendment, Michigan essentially has blocked local governments from instituting regulations that would prohibit employers from asking job applicants for salary history information. At the time of the bill’s signing,…

At the start of 2018, a group of powerful women in Hollywood launched the “Time’s Up” initiative to counter systemic sexual harassment and discrimination and address broader issues affecting women, including fair pay in the workplace. In support of its goals, the initiative includes a legal defense fund to help women protect themselves from sexual misconduct and discrimination. In a letter to The New York Times, organizers said, “Unfortunately, too many centers of power –…

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has vetoed legislation that would have prohibited employers from requesting salary history information from prospective employees. As previously reported, the prohibition would have been enacted through amendments to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.  In vetoing the bill, Governor Christie reaffirmed his commitment to ending wage discrimination but felt the law, as written, was too broad and “would punish, as discriminatory, otherwise innocuous conduct done with neither discriminatory…

New Jersey is moving closer to enacting a law that would prohibit employers from inquiring about applicants’ salary histories. The bill, passed in the Democratic-controlled state Assembly and now the state Senate, is one of several similar bills that have passed or are being considered across the country.  Governor Chris Christie now will decide whether to sign the bill into law. The proposed legislation would amend New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination to prohibit employers from…