What Does the Equal Pay Act Require?

If no two people in your business do the same job, you probably won't need to address the equal pay issue at all. However, if you have employees of different genders who do the same or substantially the same job, you should look for differences in the pay they receive. The difference doesn't have to be large. If you find them, make sure that you can prove that those differences are based on something other than gender, such as seniority, education, shift differentials, additional responsibilities, or experience.

You also have to look for more subtle types of equal pay violations. For example, are there situations where males predominantly occupy a certain kind of job that pays more than other jobs? While this situation may say something about your recruiting and hiring practices, it may also lead to problems with Equal Pay Act claims.

For example, let’s say you employ three salespeople and five customer service representatives. Salespeople get paid an average of $30,000 annually, and customer service representatives get paid an average of $24,000 annually. All of your salespeople are males, while four out of five of your customer services representatives are female.

Does this situation in and of itself put you in violation of the Equal Pay Act? No, but it should raise a red flag. If men are in most or all of your highest paying jobs while women are in most or all of your lower paying positions, you'll want to look into this problem and make sure that the differences in pay and gender/job distribution are the result of factors other than gender.

If you're sued and found in violation of the Equal Pay Act, you may have to pay any wages owed to the suing parties plus other penalties.

If you see a situation where there is clearly a problem with females being paid less than males for the same work, or vice versa, you need to fix the problem by making the wages more equitable. It is illegal to reduce the pay of one gender to match the lower pay of the other. You have to raise the pay of the employees being paid less.

Fix the problem as soon as possible. don't wait until the employee’s next raise to bridge the salary gap. If the problems are more subtle, as in the example above, your hiring and promotion procedures may be the problem. Be sure to give all employees the same opportunities to get the higher paying jobs.