A lawsuit has been filed against Oracle, a computer technology corporation, alleging pay discrimination. Three female employees are seeking class-action status to represent all women at Oracle.
The lawsuits state that Oracle paid female employees less than male employees for substantially similar work.
The named plaintiffs are Rong Jewett, Sophy Wang and Xian Murray. Jewett worked with Oracle as an application engineer from April 2012 until July 2016. Wang worked in application engineering from October 2008 to March 2017. Murray worked at Oracle from March 2011 to October 2016.
The company is accused of violating California’s Equal Pay Act.
The California Equal Pay Act
According to the California Equal Pay Act, “No employer shall pay any individual in the employer’s employ at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for equal work on jobs”.
When a lawsuit is filed alleging pay discrimination, the law will examine several key factors to determine if discrimination occurred. This includes the skill of workers, the effort requires to perform their job, their amount of responsibility, working conditions and whether the job is within an establishment.
It is allowed under the law for companies to have pay differentials based on seniority, merit, quantity of quality of production. The burden of proof that a pay differential is the result of one of these things and not discrimination is on the employer.
If you believe that your company is paying you less than a member of the opposite sex due to discrimination, discuss it in a free consultation with an employment law attorney.