Feds said employer violated equal pay act

 

It can pay to double-check employees’ salaries to make sure men and women who do, in large part, the same jobs are paid equally.

 

After all, if you’re not regularly looking at existing employee’s salaries, it can be easy to pay someone a salary that violates the Equal Pay Act.

 

Case in point: Two women in the same insurance sales position at Heritage Bank in Wood River, NE, had the same base salary $30,000.

 

But when one of the women quit and was replaced by a man, the bank paid him $40,000. The remaining woman complained, but the bank did nothing about it, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). So the agency sued on the woman’s behalf, claiming the bank violated the Equal Pay Act.

 

The law prohibits companies from paying one sex less for work requiring the same skill, effort, and responsibility and work conditions.

 

The result? A U.S. Magistrate judge required the bank to pay the woman who complained $30,598.

 

What the law says

 

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. The law says male v female differences in pay are permissible when the differences are based on:

 

Length-of-employment seniority

 

A job-performance merit system

 

A quality/amount-of-work incentive system, or

 

Another factor tied to operations.

 

More info: tinyurl.com/Equal537