For example, some employers maintain paper employment records for employees as long as they are employed and maintain certain electronic records indefinitely. Employers should evaluate the risk of being without documents needed to defend decisions made in the distant past versus the advantage that prolonged record retention might provide to plaintiffs.
Employers should also consider the cost and logistics of extending record retention periods. There is no single record retention rule that will fit all records or all employers. As a result, employers will need to make highly individualized decisions. Employers should also give serious consideration to conducting an immediate self-audit of their written policies relating to pay decisions in three areas: 1 starting pay; 2 promotional pay increases; and 3 merit pay increases.
Professional compensation schemes normally slot every position into some form of a hierarchy, such as pay grades. Employers that do not have formal pay grades should consider adopting such a scheme. Without established pay grades, managers have wide discretion in setting pay — discretion which may turn out to be a liability in the post-Ledbetter Act era. Written policies on starting pay should also provide appropriate guidance to managers on how to set starting pay.
The policies should also provide for proper monitoring to ensure that managers adhere to the established limits. A Ledbetter Fair Pay Act self-audit should include a statistical analysis of pay decisions, including starting pay, promotional pay increases, and merit pay increase decisions over the last two years to determine whether any pattern of possible discrimination exists. Although a two-year look back will not reveal potential problems beyond that time frame, such an audit is designed to make sure that current policies are not resulting in discrimination.
A statistical analysis should also measure the extent to which actual pay decisions reflect adherence to written policies. It is probably not practical for most employers to go back much beyond two years, not only because of data availability issues but also because time is short and resources are limited. Call to action: The President is renewing his call to Congress to take up and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, commonsense legislation that would give women additional tools to fight pay discrimination.
States are increasingly taking action to fight pay discrimination, such as California and New York which passed equal pay laws last year and a number of states that will see legislation introduced this year. The President urges states—and employers—to take action to advance pay equality. The brief highlights that the U. It also points to significant progress made since by the United Kingdom to reduce their pay gap by almost 9 percentage points and by Japan, Belgium, Ireland, and Denmark to reduce each of theirs by around 7 percentage points.
The summit, which comes nearly two years after the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families, will create an opportunity to mark the progress made on behalf of women and girls domestically and internationally over the course of this Administration and to discuss solutions to the challenges they still face. Calling on Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, commonsense legislation that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of by closing loopholes in the defenses for equal pay violations, providing stronger remedies, and expanding protections against discrimination for employees who share or inquire about information about their compensation at work.
Issuing an Executive Order in April and publishing a Department of Labor rule in September prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against employees who discuss or inquire about their compensation. Hosting the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families in June , highlighting the issues that women and families face, setting the agenda for a 21st century workplace, and announcing of a number of steps to help working families thrive.
Signing a Presidential Memorandum in January directing federal agencies to advance six weeks of paid sick leave to federal employees with new children, calling on Congress to grant another six weeks of paid leave for federal employees, and calling on Congress to pass legislation that gives all American families access to paid family and medical leave.
Issuing an Executive Order in September requiring federal contractors to provide employees working on federal contracts up to seven paid sick days each year—and urging Congress, states, cities, and other businesses to do the same. Publishing a proposed Department of Labor rule in June updating outdated overtime regulations , which, if finalized, would expand overtime pay protections for nearly 5 million Americans, promoting higher take home pay, and allowing workers to better balance their work and family obligations.
But Lilly Ledbetter persevered, bringing her case all the way up to the U. Supreme Court in what became the landmark case of Ledbetter v. The Supreme Court, in a decision, agreed with the 11th Circuit. Lilly Ledbetter lost the case. At first, the bill was defeated in the Senate.
But by , it passed through Congress and was signed by then-President Obama. If you are a woman who believes she received less pay because of her gender than a man who was doing the same work, you may be able to sue even if the discrimination started a long time ago. The same is true if you are a man who believes he received less pay because of his gender.
While this is less likely to happen than the other way around, if it does, you have the same right to sue that women do. Here at Raynes Lawn Hehmeyer, our experienced employment discrimination trial lawyers are eager to get justice for our clients. If you suspect that you are being paid less than men in your company who are doing the same work, we would be glad to talk to you. Fill out our contact form , or call us at , and we will set up a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss what happened and talk to you about what you can do next.
It provides general information and a general understanding of the law but does not provide specific legal advice. Factors to be considered in determining the level of responsibility in a job include:. Ordinarily, " establishment " means a physically separate place of business. However, given that many employees have virtual offices, the EEOC assesses whether the "establishment" is separate on a case-by-case basis.
This law overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. The Act states the EEOC's longstanding position that each paycheck that contains discriminatory compensation is a separate violation regardless of when the discrimination began. The Ledbetter Act recognizes the "reality of wage discrimination" and restores "bedrock principles of American law.
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