Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA)
California Gov. Jerry Brown delivered some
good news on Tuesday by signing this into law:
The California Fair Pay Act builds on existing protections by prohibiting an employer from paying any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex for substantially similar work, not just for equal work or the exact same job title.
The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, also allows employees to file complaints alleging pay gaps between people doing substantially similar jobs at different worksites, not just at their own site. So grocery workers at one store could challenge higher wages paid to those at another owned by the same employer.
It also also prohibits retaliation against employees who ask about or discuss wages paid to coworkers and clarifies their ability to challenge whether there is discrimination. The bill creates a new cause of legal action for retaliation against workers seeking fair pay.
An employer sued by a worker would have to show that a difference in wages is due to factors other than gender, such as merit or seniority, that it is job-related and reasonable, and that it is not due to discrimination.
We can't have nice things like this at the federal level, of course, because Republicans.