Finding out a coworker doing essentially the same job as you earns significantly more can be an unsettling discovery, especially when the only apparent difference is your sex, race, or ethnicity. California has one of the strongest equal pay laws in the country, and it’s built specifically to catch pay gaps that employers might otherwise excuse with a different job title or a change of location.<\/p>\n
Here’s what the California Equal Pay Act actually requires, and what to do if you think you’ve been underpaid because of who you are rather than what you do.<\/p>\n
California’s Equal Pay Act, Labor Code Section 1197.5<\/a>, prohibits an employer from paying an employee less than an employee of the opposite sex, or of a different race or ethnicity, for \u00absubstantially similar work.\u00bb That standard is measured as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, performed under similar working conditions.<\/p>\n This is a notably broader standard than the older federal Equal Pay Act, which requires jobs to be nearly identical and performed at the same physical location. California’s law dropped both of those limitations:<\/p>\n If a significant portion of your job overlaps with a higher-paid coworker’s, small differences in title, seniority, or minor duties generally won’t defeat a claim on their own.<\/p>\n Not every pay gap is illegal. Once an employee shows a pay disparity for substantially similar work, the burden shifts to the employer to justify it under one of a limited set of affirmative defenses:<\/p>\n That fourth category is the one most often litigated, and California intentionally makes it difficult for employers to rely on. To use it, the employer must show the factor isn’t derived from a sex-, race-, or ethnicity-based pay differential, is genuinely job-related, is consistent with a legitimate business necessity, and accounts for the entire pay gap, not just part of it. If an employee can show there was a different business practice available that would have served the same purpose without producing the wage gap, the defense fails.<\/p>\n One factor employers can never use: prior salary history.<\/strong> California law explicitly prohibits justifying a pay disparity based on what an employee was previously paid at another job.<\/p>\n The Equal Pay Act also protects an employee’s right to talk about their own wages or ask coworkers about theirs. An employer cannot prohibit employees from discussing or inquiring about wages, and cannot retaliate against an employee for doing so, for filing an equal pay complaint, or for assisting in someone else’s investigation or lawsuit. In practice, this means the conversation that reveals a pay gap in the first place is itself a legally protected activity.<\/p>\n An employer found to have violated the Equal Pay Act is generally liable for:<\/p>\n Because each paycheck that reflects the unequal pay is treated as its own violation, the clock effectively resets with every pay period, which affects how far back a claim can reach. This is separate from a general wage and hour claim<\/a> for unpaid overtime or missed breaks, though both types of violations can sometimes exist within the same workplace.<\/p>\n Deadlines depend on the nature of the violation and when it was discovered:<\/p>\n Because the clock resets with each new paycheck reflecting the disparity, a pay gap that started years ago is often still partially recoverable, even if the full history isn’t.<\/p>\n If the disparity is also tied to a protected characteristic, such as sex, race, or another category covered by California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), a related employment discrimination<\/a> claim may also be available, which carries its own filing deadlines and remedies, including damages not capped the way some other claims are.<\/p>\n An employee who believes they’ve experienced an Equal Pay Act violation generally has two options:<\/p>\n The administrative process is accessible to workers representing themselves, but Equal Pay Act cases often turn on detailed comparator analysis, meaning identifying the right coworkers to compare pay against, and statistical or documentary evidence of the pay gap. That kind of case-building is typically better suited to civil court, where broader discovery tools are available.<\/p>\n If you believe you’re being paid less than a coworker doing substantially similar work because of your sex, race, or ethnicity, this may also overlap with broader sex or gender discrimination<\/a>:<\/p>\n Pay disparities are often buried in job titles, department structures, or vague justifications that don’t hold up once actual duties are compared side by side. If you believe you’re being paid less than a coworker for substantially similar work, the Equal Pay Act attorneys at Mesriani Law Group<\/a> can help evaluate your situation and identify what compensation you may be owed.<\/p>\n Think you’re being paid unfairly?<\/strong> Contact Mesriani Law Group today at (866) 500-7070<\/strong> for a free, no-obligation consultation. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.<\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n This article is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different, so consult a licensed California attorney about your specific situation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finding out a coworker doing essentially the same job as you earns significantly more can be an unsettling discovery, especially when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employment-law","category-equal-pay-act"],"acf":[],"contentshake_article_id":"","yoast_head":"\n\n
What an Employer Can Legally Point To<\/h2>\n
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Your Right to Discuss Pay<\/h2>\n
What Compensation Looks Like<\/h2>\n
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How Long You Have to File<\/h2>\n
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Where to File a Claim<\/h2>\n
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What to Do If You Suspect a Pay Gap<\/h2>\n
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Talk to a California Equal Pay Act Attorney<\/h2>\n
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