The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women in the same workplace be paid an equal amount for equal work. Almost all employers are subject to the EPA, and all pay is subject to protection: salary, overtime, bonuses, stock options, profit sharing, life insurance, vacation, holiday pay, allowances, reimbursement and benefits.
Employers are paying more attention to the Equal Pay Act as certain of them will soon have to identify salary as part of Equal Employment Opportunity reporting compliance.
To be protected by equal pay, the jobs do not have to be identical, but they must be substantially equal. Job content, not job titles, determine if jobs are substantially equal. The EPA specifically requires that employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility and that are performed under similar working conditions within the same establishment.
Pay differences are permitted if they are based on seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or a factor other than sex.
If an employer reviews its pay practices and discovers a potential EPA violation, the employer may not reduce the higher paid employee’s compensation. Instead, the lower paid employee’s pay must be increased.