What employers don't know can hurt them: assessing EPOA risk

Since July 2018, Washington businesses have been operating under the state's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (EPOA), which significantly expanded the state's 1943 Equal Pay Act and is one of the most stringent equal pay laws in the country. As we approach its three-year anniversary, you may want to consider reassessing your equal pay risk.

While conducting a comprehensive equal pay risk assessment may seem like a daunting (not to mention expensive) prospect, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) offers free consultations and other resources to help assess compliance. Consider using L&I's cost-effective resources . . . because what businesses don't know about their pay practices can hurt them.

How EPOA works

The EPOA's primary purpose is to prohibit discrimination in the payment of discretionary and nondiscretionary wages as well as employment benefits and advancement opportunities between "similarly employed" workers. It also prohibits some wage history inquiries, protects certain employee activities from adverse action or retaliation, and imposes wage disclosure requirements.

Employees are "similarly employed" if they perform work requiring similar skill, effort, and responsibility under similar conditions for the same employer. It's the employer's burden to show any differential treatment in pay or opportunities is based in good faith on bona fide job-related factors that (1) are consistent with business necessity, (2) aren't based on or derived from a gender-based differential, and (3) account for the entire differential. The EPOA provides examples of such factors: