Equal Pay for Men and Women | Riggan Law Firm, LLC (2024)

More Than 30 Years Serving St. Louis for All Employment Law Needs

Missouri Employment Attorney Fighting for Your Civil Right to Equal Pay

Riggan Law Firm, LLC is made up of a team of professional, experienced, and attentive discrimination lawyers representing employees whose rights to equal pay have been violated in Missouri or Illinois. More and more students, both male and female, are graduating with the same degrees, pursuing the same courses of training, and are equally qualified to perform the same tasks and job duties. However, as many men and women present the same qualifications, employers are still upholding a wage gap.

If you are someone equally qualified as a person of the opposite sex but have been denied the same pay for the same job duties performed, then it is important that you contact an attorney from Riggan Law Firm, LLC as soon as possible. Regardless of your gender, you should not be discriminated against or harassed through your employment benefits and compensation. The archaic belief that one gender should make more money than another needs to be addressed and reformed, and the team at Riggan Law Firm, LLC can fight for the compensation you deserve.

Speak with an attorney at Riggan Law Firm, LLC by calling 314-528-9661 or contacting them online.

State Equal Pay Laws

The Missouri Equal Pay Act prohibits employers from paying women less than men in the same establishment for the same quantity and quality of the same classification of work. This act covers all employers, regardless of size.

Note that variations in pay are permissible if they are based in good faith upon the following factors:

• seniority,
• length of service,
• ability,
• skill,
• duties,
• hours or shifts worked,
• restrictions on heavy lifting, or
• any factor other than sex.

The Missouri Human Rights Act also prohibits employers from compensation discrimination due to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age (40 to 70 years), or disability, and the act covers private employers with six or more employees and all state and local government agencies, regardless of size.

Federal Equal Pay Laws

The federal Equal Pay Act requires that employees be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. Note that the jobs in question do not need to be identical, but they must be substantially equal. In other words, it is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are substantially equal.

Factors in determining the substance of jobs include:

• skill,
• effort,
• responsibility,
• working conditions, and
• establishment.

Also note that equal pay laws apply not only to wages but also to other forms of compensation, such as:

• health benefits,
• retirement benefits,
• bonuses,
• commissions, and
• expense reimbursem*nt.

Similar to exceptions in pay variation at the state level, differentials in compensation are permitted on a federal level when they are based on:

• seniority,
• merit,
• quantity or quality of production, or
• a factor other than sex.

These are referred to as “affirmative defenses” for the employer, and it is the employer’s burden to prove that they lawfully apply. Note that no employee’s pay may be reduced to correct a pay differential. The employer must instead increase the pay of the lower-paid employee(s).

Additional laws protecting your rights to compensation as an employee include Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA, all of which prohibit compensation discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability. Unlike the EPA, these laws do not require that the claimant’s job be substantially equal to that of a higher-paid person outside the claimant’s protected class, nor do they require the claimant to work in the same establishment as a comparator.

Facing Compensation Discrimination in St. Louis?

If you believe that your rights to fair compensation have been violated in any manner, do not hesitate to contact Riggan Law Firm, LLC as soon as possible. Employment cases have strictly short timelines for filing, and your employer might have more experience and resources dealing with workplace lawsuits than you do. The attorneys at Riggan Law Firm, LLC firmly believe in every employee’s civil right to equal pay in the workplace regardless of gender, and they will fight aggressively for the equal treatment you deserve as an employee.

Contact Riggan Law Firm, LLC at 314-528-9661 or online here as soon as possible to fight for the compensation you’re owed!

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