Prevent the Publicization of Company Pay Data
SB 1162 would encourage new, burdensome litigation against employers based on the publication of broad, unreliable data collected by the state. Further, this bill undermines employers’ ability to hire, imposes administrative and record keeping requirements that are impossible to implement, and subjects’ employers to private right of action and penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
Less than two years ago, the California Legislature enacted SB 973 (Jackson). SB 973 requires all California employers with 100 or more employees to report pay data by sex, race, ethnicity, and job category to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). 2021 was the first year this information was reported.
After only one year of this reporting requirement, SB 1162 seeks to publicize all this data identifiable by individual companies under the pretense that it would reveal gender and race-based pay disparities. Publicizing the data to target employers is a cynical and disingenuous manipulation of what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) itself has acknowledged is not a reliable measure of pay disparities between similarly situated employees.
The bill will similarly open businesses up to litigation. Once the data is made public, a plaintiff’s attorney would simply have to review the companies with perceived pay disparities and send a settlement demand or threaten litigation.
The additional burdens and costs this proposal would create will limit an employer’s ability to offer higher wages and benefits to new or existing employees and discourage growth or expansion in California.
Prevent the Publicization of Company Pay Data
SB 1162 would encourage new, burdensome litigation against employers based on the publication of broad, unreliable data collected by the state. Further, this bill undermines employers’ ability to hire, imposes administrative and record keeping requirements that are impossible to implement, and subjects’ employers to private right of action and penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
Less than two years ago, the California Legislature enacted SB 973 (Jackson). SB 973 requires all California employers with 100 or more employees to report pay data by sex, race, ethnicity, and job category to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). 2021 was the first year this information was reported.
After only one year of this reporting requirement, SB 1162 seeks to publicize all this data identifiable by individual companies under the pretense that it would reveal gender and race-based pay disparities. Publicizing the data to target employers is a cynical and disingenuous manipulation of what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) itself has acknowledged is not a reliable measure of pay disparities between similarly situated employees.
The bill will similarly open businesses up to litigation. Once the data is made public, a plaintiff’s attorney would simply have to review the companies with perceived pay disparities and send a settlement demand or threaten litigation.
The additional burdens and costs this proposal would create will limit an employer’s ability to offer higher wages and benefits to new or existing employees and discourage growth or expansion in California.