Return to Home PageCompensation discrimination in employment is prohibited by the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, all enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Collectively, these statutes require employers to compensate employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability.
The law against compensation discrimination includes all payments made to or on behalf employees as remuneration for employment. All forms of compensation are covered, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, profit sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses, and benefits.
The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. It is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are substantially equal. Specifically, the EPA provides:
Employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions within the same establishment. Each of these factors is summarized below:
Skill - Measured by factors such as the experience, ability, education, and training required to perform the job. The key issue is what skills are required for the job, not what skills the individual employees may have. For example, two bookkeeping jobs could be considered equal under the EPA even if one of the job holders has a master's degree in physics, since that degree would not be required for the job.
Effort - The amount of physical or mental exertion needed to perform the job. For example, suppose that men and women work side by side on a line assembling machine parts. The person at the end of the line must also lift the assembled product as he or she completes the work, and place it on a board. That job requires more effort than the other assembly line jobs if the extra effort of lifting the assembled product off the line is substantial and is a regular part of the job. As a result, it would not be a violation to pay that person more, regardless of whether the job is held by a man or a woman.
Responsibility - The degree of accountability required in performing the job. For example, a salesperson who is delegated the duty of determining whether to accept customers' personal checks has more responsibility than other salespeople. On the other hand, a minor difference in responsibility, such as assignment of the task of locking up at the end of the day, would not justify a pay differential.
Working Conditions - This encompasses two factors: (1) physical surroundings like temperature, fumes, and ventilation, and (2) hazards. For example, suppose a male nurse's aide who works in a hospital is paid less than a female nurse's aid who works in patients' homes. This difference generally does not qualify as a difference in working conditions that would justify a pay differential, because the physical surroundings and hazards in the two locations typically are similar.
Establishment - The prohibition against compensation discrimination under the EPA applies only to jobs within any establishment. An establishment is a distinct physical place of business rather than an entire business or enterprise consisting of several places of business. However, in some circumstances, physically separate places of business should be treated as one establishment. For example, if a central administrative unit hires employees, sets their compensation, and assigns them to work locations, the separate work sites can be considered part of one establishment.
Pay differentials are permitted when they are based on seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or a factor other than sex. These are known as "affirmative defenses" and it is the employer's burden to prove that they apply.
In correcting a pay differential, no employee's pay may be reduced. Instead, the pay of the lower paid employee(s) must be increased.
Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA prohibit compensation discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability. Unlike the EPA, there is no requirement under Title VII, the ADEA, or the ADA that the claimant's job be substantially equal to that of a higher paid person outside the claimant's protected class, nor do these statutes require the claimant to work in the same establishment as a comparator. The basic theories of disparate treatment and adverse impact generally apply to compensation discrimination claims under these statutes.
Compensation discrimination under Title VII, the ADEA, or the ADA can occur in a variety of forms. For example:
Employees who believe they are under-compensated because of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability may file a charge with the EEOC.
Employers are encouraged to evaluate their compensation systems to ensure that the compensation of employees is based on nondiscriminatory factors. Employers also should evaluate practices that may indirectly depress the compensation of employees in protected classes. For example, employers should make sure that promotion decisions, performance appraisal systems, and procedures for assigning work are non-discriminatory.
Information on training, information for small businesses, and other information can be found on the EEOC's Internet web site at www.eeoc.gov.
This page was last modified on July 16, 2002.