State legislatures continue to pass laws designed to enhance pay equity and transparency, with the laws of California and Colorado effective in 2021. The California law requires employee pay data reporting by race and gender, and the Colorado law requires robust pay and promotional transparency. California Under California’s pay data reporting law (SB 973), most employers with employees in California must file a report of employee pay data by March 31, 2021. Please find the…

As yet another confirmation that pay equity will be a priority for the Biden-Harris administration, the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 7.  The proposed legislation has a long history but has never been given a vote in the Senate – it last passed in the House of Representatives in 2019. Please find the rest of this article on our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor.…

California SB 973 requires employers that (1) file EEO-1 reports and (2) employ more than 100 employees to submit data to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) annually that shows pay by race and gender for their California employees. It was signed into law on September 30, 2020, and DFEH has been busy providing guidance to employers and preparing the pay data reporting portal. Additional — perhaps final — guidance was released…

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) continues to advance toward the March 31, 2021 pay data collection deadline.  When SB 973 was passed in September, DFEH had six months to develop and implement a data collection system that could accomplish the task.  It is delivering.  DFEH issued its first guidance on November 2 and released more FAQs on November 23.  And now, DFEH has again released new FAQs and updated its…

As anticipated, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) issued an Interpretive & Formal Opinion (INFO) – “Transparency in Pay and Opportunities for Promotion and Advancement”.  While the INFO is helpful in some respects, CDLE continues to take a hardline on the definition of “promotional opportunity”. We continue to digest the guidance but the highlights include clarifying that a “promotional opportunity” exists “when an employer has or anticipates a vacancy in an existing…

We have learned that the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment anticipates publishing next week additional guidance on the Equal Pay Transparency rules’ promotional posting requirements.  In response to a request for clarification around in-line promotions, the CDLE informed us: We believe your questions will be addressed by a forthcoming Interpretive Notice & Formal Opinions (“INFO”), which we expect to release next week. In addition to addressing your questions, this INFO will provide other clarification…

The deadline for employers to comply with California’s pay data reporting requirement (Senate Bill 973) and submit pay data to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is March 31, 2021. The DFEH has launched an information page that provides needed clarity on certain obligations and has issued additional guidance on the pay data report’s contents — largely confirming certain assumptions and clarifying other requirements. Submission will resemble EEO-1 Reports. Employers will…