Inadequately explained inconsistencies in the evidentiary record.Deviations from standard procedures without explanation or justification.Comparative or statistical data revealing differences in treatment across various protected-group lines, unequal application of agency policy.Discriminatory statements or past personal treatment attributable to those responsible for the personnel action that led to the filing of the complaint.The employer must prove that the gender-neutral factor it identified is the factor causing the wage difference in question. A plaintiff may rebut the employer’s affirmative defense with evidence that the defendant’s proffered reasons for the wage disparity are a mere pretext for sex discrimination.Īdditional indicators of pretext include: Once the plaintiff has met this initial burden, the statute presumes discrimination and requires the defendant to proffer an affirmative defense successfully based on one of the statute’s four exceptions. Furthermore, the similar treatment of other employees of a different gender cannot defeat a plaintiff prima facie showing that she received different pay than a similarly situated employee of the opposite sex. The plaintiff need not show that the wage disparity results from gender bias or discriminatory practice on the part of the defendant. To establish a prima facie case under the Equal Pay Act, a plaintiff must show that (1) an employer pays different wages to employees of the opposite sex, (2) for equal work requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility, (3) performed under similar working conditions. No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system (ii) a merit system (iii) a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production or (iv) a differential based on any factor other than sex. Congress extended the statute to the federal government in 1974. Kennedy, as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to remedy disparities in pay arising from traditional concepts of gender. Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act (EPA) in 1963, signed into law by President John F.

Equal pay act