Can California’s Salary Transparency Laws Prevent Employment Discrimination?

Employment discrimination cases often focus on an employee’s allegations that the employer terminated the employee’s job, harassed the employee, or unfairly denied him or her promotions or raises because of a protected characteristic of the employee, such as the employee’s race, gender, religion, family status, or country of origin.  Investigations into an employee’s discrimination complaint sometimes lead to the discovery that employees of a certain race or gender receive preferential treatment throughout the organization.  The plaintiff may find out that he, and others of his same race, were offered a lower starting salary than employees of a different race who applied for the same position, for example, and that these pay discrepancies persisted no matter how long these employees continued to work for the organization.  Lack of transparency about pay, along with the social taboo against asking your coworkers how much money they make, makes it easier for employers to get away with these unfair practices.  California’s pay transparency laws aim to prevent employers from perpetuating the cycle of discrimination by paying employees less simply because their previous employers paid them less.  If the fact that your employer is cagey about talking about salaries is just one of the shady things going on at your workplace, contact a Los Angeles discrimination and harassment lawyer.

California Employers Must Disclose the Salary Range for the Position After the First Interview

California is one of several states that require some employers to disclose salary ranges before an employee accepts a job.  In other words, the employer must not base the employee’s salary on the amount of money that the employee has made while working for previous employers.  All employers are not allowed to ask job applicants about their salary history at any point during the application, onboarding, or training process; this way, the employee’s salary history cannot influence the employer’s decision about how much to offer in the initial job offer or how much to increase the amount offered if the employee negotiates for higher pay.

California law requires that an employer with 15 or more employees that engages a third party to announce, post, publish, or otherwise make known a job posting shall provide the pay scale to the third party, and that the third party shall include the pay scale in the job posting.

Speak With a Los Angeles Employment Discrimination Lawyer

A Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyer can help you if your employer has failed to disclose the salary range, and you suspect that you are being paid less than your coworkers for discriminatory reasons.  Contact Litigation, P.C. in Los Angeles, California to discuss your situation or call (424)284-2401.

Sources:

adp.com/spark/articles/2022/12/up-to-date-with-pay-transparency-laws-heres-what-to-know.aspx

he-sun.com/money/7030633/employers-salary-transparency-law/