Explosion Of Gender Pay Lawsuits Predicted For CA

It’s soon to become easier to make a case for gender pay discrimination in California. A far-reaching amendment to the state’s existing gender pay equality law was signed into law earlier this month by Governor Jerry Brown and will go into effect on January 1. “Employers can expect the number of gender pay individual and class action lawsuits in California to explode,” writes Morrison & Foerster partner Eric A. Tate. Among other changes in the law, the amendment, designated SB358, bars a pay differential for “substantially similar work” even when the job titles are different or the two employees in the comparison work at different locations, and it puts the burden of proof for showing that a pay differential is based on  non-discriminatory factors – such as seniority, merit or work quality – on the employer.