In the next chapter of the pay data reporting saga, the EEOC has filed a Motion with the court seeking an order “determining that the EEO-1 Component 2 data collection is deemed complete.” The EEOC is reporting that, “as October 8, 2019, 75.9% of eligible filers had submitted Component 2 data.”
Please find the rest of this article in our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor blog here.
Amendments to Illinois’ Equal Pay Act (EPA) go into effect on September 29, 2019, leaving employers little time to adjust their hiring practices.
No Inquiries into Salary History. Under the amended EPA, employers and employment agencies may not:
Employers also are prohibited from seeking an applicant’s salary history from an applicant’s current or former employer.
Employers are not prohibited however, from (i) providing information about the compensation or benefits of a position, or (ii) discussing an applicant’s expectations about compensation or benefits. An employer also would not violate the EPA if a job applicant voluntarily discloses his or her current or prior compensation, provided the employer does not consider the voluntary disclosure in deciding whether to offer the applicant employment or in setting compensation.
An employer found to have violated the law may be subject to:
In order to avoid fines and lawsuits, companies recruiting in Illinois should remove any questions about an applicant’s previous pay or benefits from their job applications and any related documents, both on-line or in hard copy.
No Restrictions on an Employee’s Own Disclosure. The new law prohibits employers from requiring employees to sign contracts or waivers preventing them from disclosing information regarding their own wages, salary, benefits, or other compensation. Employers, however, may prohibit Human Resources personnel from disclosing other employees’ wage information without first obtaining written consent.
Broader Definition for “Comparators.” The new law expands the definition of applicable comparators. Previously, the Act prohibited pay discrimination where employees were performing substantially similar work on jobs that required “equal skill, effort and responsibility.” The amended Act refers to employees who are performing substantially similar work on jobs requiring “substantially similar skill, effort, and responsibility.”
Limited Exceptions to Equal Pay Treatment. Under the previous law, exceptions for pay differentials mirrored the federal Equal Pay Act and could be based on: i) seniority; ii) merit; iii) measures of earning based on quantity or quality of production; or iv) a factor other than sex, race, or unlawful discrimination. Under the amended law, any factor other than sex, race, or a factor that would constitute unlawful discrimination must also: (i) not be derived from a differential in compensation based on sex, race, or another protected characteristic; (ii) relate to the job or business needs; and (iii) actually account for the differential.
More information can be found in our other articles on the Illinois EPA. Members of Jackson Lewis’ Pay Equity Resource Group can also offer guidance to employers to ensure compliance with the law’s amended provisions.
Pay equity challenges continue to make the news in the healthcare setting, primarily in the context of physician pay equity gaps. This month, the journal Pediatrics published data from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study (PLACE), which included 1,000 physician responses on income and 1,300 responses on household responsibilities. The income data (from 2016) showed that female pediatricians were paid only 76 percent of their male peers’ income.
Please find the rest of this article on our Healthcare Workplace Update here.
In its most recent required status report to the court, filed September 27, 2019, the EEOC reports:
“[s]o long as the Court’s order is in effect stating that the collection will not be complete until it reaches what the Court has determined to be the target response rate, the EEOC will continue to accept Component 2 data for 2017 and 2018.
Please find the rest of this article on our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor blog here.
With the future of the EEOC’s pay data collection efforts unclear, California’s effort to legislate its own race- and sex-based pay data reporting requirements likewise has stalled, for now.
Since July, California’s Senate Bill 171 (requiring private employers with at least 100 employees to submit an annual report of employee pay data broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex within specified job categories) has stalled. After the Judiciary Subcommittee passed and referred the bill to the Appropriations Committee, it was placed on the Appropriation Committee’s “Suspense File,” where bills with annual costs above $150,000 are held until the state budget has been prepared. At the hearing on August 30, the bill failed to garner sufficient votes to pass out of committee before the legislative session adjourned on September 13.
Failing to clear the necessary hurdles before the end of the legislative session, the bill must be reintroduced when the legislature reconvenes on January 6, 2020. It is unclear whether the pay data reporting bill will be reintroduced by Senate Bill 171’s sponsor Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, another advocate in the upcoming session, or at all.
The Jackson Lewis Pay Equity Resource Group will continue to monitor and report on these developments, including whether some version of the pay data reporting bill is reintroduced when the California state legislature reconvenes. Please reach out to a Jackson Lewis attorney with any questions.
As we previously reported , EEOC has filed notice asking for renewed approval to collect EEO-1 Component 1 race, gender and ethnicity workforce data for the next three years (2019, 2020 & 2021), but is not seeking renewed authority to collect Component 2 pay data and hours worked. To be clear, this filing does not impact the current obligation employers have to submit 2017 and 2018 pay data by September 30, 2019.
Please find the rest of this article on our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor blog here.
As previously reported, EEOC is expected to publish tomorrow a Notice of Information Collection regarding EEO-1 Reporting. An advance copy of the notice reports that “the EEOC is not seeking to renew Component 2 of the EEO-1.” Instead, the Commission has concluded it should consider information from the current Component 2 collection before deciding whether to submit a renewed pay data collection to OMB for approval.
Please find the rest of this article on our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor blog here.
State pay equity laws, in large part, have been a response to a perception that the federal government is not acting effectively or quickly enough to address gender and race pay gaps. Not surprisingly, several democratic presidential candidates have staked out platforms on how they will address pay inequities at the federal level – some more specific than others.
The candidates’ platform themes include:
Two basic themes are apparent: compelling employers to be more transparent in their pay practices will draw attention and action to address pay equity issues; and paying attention to pay equity alone is not enough if women and minorities are not well-represented at all workforce levels.
The Democratic candidates are following existing pay equity strategies and themes of the states, as well as of countries in the European Union. Of course, while no one can predict outcomes of elections, whether at the federal or state level, efforts to address pay equity are not likely to die down anytime soon.
Please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney or a member of the Pay Equity Resource group for assistance to proactively address pay equity questions.
In its required status report, filed pursuant to Court Order, EEOC announced it is preparing a Notice of Information Collection – Employer Information Report (EEO-1) to seek authorization from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the collection of pay data going forward. As a reminder, OMB approval for the data collection expires September 30, 2019 – the same deadline imposed by the court for the current reporting period for the EEO-1 Component 2 data. Once published in the Federal Register, EEOC states “the public will be invited to submit comments to the Commission.”
Please find the rest of this article on our Affirmative Action & OFCCP Law Advisor blog here.
An amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act expands the Act’s scope and prohibits employers in Illinois from requesting information about a job applicant’s prior compensation.
House Bill 834 passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, and was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker on July 31, 2019, as Public Act 101-1077. The new law takes effect on September 29, 2019. Please click here to read the full article about this amendment.
