Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Partner and Chair of the firm's Employment Law practice Debra Ellwood Meppen and Senior Counsel Laurie DeYoung authored their second article on the Equal Pay Act class action lawsuit filed against Google, Inc. following Google's demurrer on March 26, 2018. In the class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege systemic and intentional pay gaps between men and women who perform substantially the same work and offer legal strategies to safeguard businesses against equal pay claims in California. Published in Law360 on April 25, the article "Equal Pay: Where Do We Stand Now?" examines the impact of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Mary Wiss' decision to overrule Google's demurrer.
Ms. Meppen and Ms. DeYoung provide their analysis of the immediate impact of the Google decision that resulted in the parties continuing with class discovery (the Google class ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 women at seven Google offices). While a hearing on class certification could be scheduled as early as the first part of 2019, Ms. Meppen and Ms. DeYoung predict that the case will end up in mediation before the parties actually contemplate certification or engage in motion practice.
The authors also provide insight on the trajectory of this decision and the impact that the decision may have on employers—large or small. They conclude the article with a detailed discussion of pay gaps that are considered legal and provide best practices for employers to stay ahead of the law when setting employee compensation.
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