Beware of pay disparities hiding at your organization

Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act are three federal laws that prohibit discrimination in pay. In addition to these federal laws, state and local laws aimed at pay disparity are popping up around the country (California, Massachusetts, New Orleans, New York, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Puerto Rico). While historically, in a nonunion environment, employers were able to keep compensation confidential, the looming compensation reporting requirement for the EEO-1 means that employers will be handing over data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that will highlight disparities in pay based on gender and race.

Senior Legal Editor Joan Farrell recently attended a presentation at the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) annual conference by attorneys Joseph Beachboard and Lara de Leon of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., who gave employers some advice on how to get a handle on pay disparities at their organizations, and steps they can take to address pay gaps. Farrell’s article on the presentation tells you what you need to know.

On another note, last Thursday the U.S. Senate released a revised version of its proposed Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal-and-replace bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. Senior Legal Editor Jennifer Carsen reviewed the proposal and you can get more information in her article on HR.BLR.com^®.

Attorneys from BLR’s Employers Counsel Network (ECN) will cover these and other compliance priorities at our annual conference in November in Las Vegas—a great alternative to the mega conferences.

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