Pay equity is keeping employers up at night. What was once a gender equality mandate now covers every protected category, including race and sexual orientation. The stakes are high; one misstep can damage a brand, slash shareholder value, and weaken employee loyalty.
As employers struggle to keep up with evolving equal pay laws across the country, they turn to Epstein Becker Green to mitigate risk, address wage gaps, and limit penalties.
Multijurisdictional Advice, Comprehensive Compliance Solutions
Our Pay Equity team prevents equal pay claims while working toward an equitable compensation culture for all employees. Our lawyers—and compensation consultants from our affiliate EBG Advisors—collaborate from offices across the country to review compensation processes and outcomes to ensure compliance with laws in every state. With many seasoned professionals on our team, we offer insight into key regulatory priorities and anticipate enforcement actions by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
Proactive Counsel for Changing Times
Large or small, multistate or regional, employers rely on our team to identify pay equity issues, manage risk, and build industry-leading compliance programs. We offer a full range of advice and counsel, including:
- Attorney-client privileged pay equity audits, including statistical computations and analyses to identify and address unjustifiable pay disparities
- Compensation policy and procedure drafting to provide sufficient pay transparency and maintain pay equity compliance
- Pay practice review and modification to ensure compliance and mitigate risk, and advice on the use of artificial intelligence analytic technologies
- Performance evaluation system implementation and maintenance to support pay equity compliance
- Pay equity training for managers and others involved in hiring, promotion, and compensation activities
- General wage and hour compliance training to understand how equal pay impacts executive compensation, bonus pools, and reporting requirements
- Internal investigations of wage inequality complaints
- Litigation and government investigation representation in pay discrimination claims
Representative Experience
- Worked on a pay equity analysis for a technology company’s U.S.-based population. We provided the legal guidance on grouping, comparators, and mitigation strategies, where needed.
- Regularly advise employers regarding the consideration, adoption, and implementation of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics in the workplace, particularly in HR functions, such as HR communications and pay equity audits.
- Secured the dismissal of equal pay and wage discrimination claims against a financial services company, despite changing court views on those claims.
- Drafted compensation policies and procedures for various clients that provide for sufficient pay transparency and maintain pay equity compliance.
- Conducted pay equity analyses for a number of financial services firms, including banks, insurance companies, broker dealers, and private equity and asset management firms.
