Law360
May.28.2013
This article, about the increasing government scrutiny of employer pay practices and the ways to prevent equal pay issues from arising, quotes employment law partner Gary Siniscalco.
"A good place to begin is trying to replicate the analysis the government might do or what a plaintiff might use to argue, but ultimately you also want to look at what you, the employer, might regard as a relevant comparison,” Siniscalco said.
However, attorneys cautioned that before racing to change compensation levels, businesses should also take a step back and make sure there aren't other, totally legal factors that aren't reflected in the data points driving those differences.
"Simply finding disparities from statistics doesn't mean you just go ahead make changes. You first need to analyze more carefully whether you can identify legitimate factors that would properly justify pay differences," Siniscalco added. "While statistics are a starting point, they are not the end point."