§ 25-1-30 — Equal Pay and Employment Requirements

(a) This section shall be known as the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act.
(b) An employer, including the state or any of its political subdivisions, including public bodies, may not pay any of its employees at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of another sex or race for equal work within the same establishment on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, education, experience, and responsibility, and performance under similar working conditions, except where the payment is made pursuant to any of the following:
(1) A seniority system.
(2) A merit system.
(3) A system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production.
(4) A differential based on any factor other than sex or race.
(c) An employer shall not refuse to interview, hire, promote, or employ an applicant for employment, or retaliate against an applicant for employment because the applicant does not provide wage history. Wage history means the wages paid to an applicant for employment by the applicant’s current or former employer.
(d) Any employer who violates subsection (b) or (c) is liable to the employee affected in an amount equal to the wages, and interest thereon, of which the employee is deprived by reason of the violation.
(e) An employer shall adopt the rules for record keeping established by the United States Department of Labor for the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 C.F.R. Part 516.
(f) An employee who files a claim against his or her employer for a violation of subsection (b) must plead with particularity in demonstrating both of the following:
(1) The employee was paid less than someone for equal work despite possessing equal skill, effort, education, experience, and responsibility.
(2) The applicable wage schedule at issue was or is not correlated to any conditions permissible under subsection (b).
(g) If an employee recovers an amount under subsection (d), and also files a complaint or brings an action pursuant to federal law which results in an additional recovery under federal law for the same violation, the employee shall return to the employer the amount recovered under subsection (d), or the amount recovered under federal law, whichever is less.
(h) A civil action brought pursuant to subsection (d) may be commenced no later than two years after the act of discrimination giving rise to a cause of action.

Legislative History

(Act 2019-519, §§1, 2.)