How broad is the California Equal Pay Act?

The federal Equal Pay Act asks whether two people do equal work in the same establishment. California asks a wider question, and each widening moves cases that would fail federally into the range of a claim.

The standard is substantially similar work, viewed as a composite of skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions. Different job titles do not answer it, and neither does a different department, because the comparison is of the work rather than of the label attached to it.

The statute reaches race and ethnicity as well as sex, and it is not limited to a single worksite — an employee at one location may compare themselves to a colleague at another. In a business with two or three sites, that alone changes who is comparable.

The burden is the part that decides outcomes. Once a pay differential between substantially similar work is shown, the employer must affirmatively prove the entire difference is explained by a seniority system, a merit system, a system measuring earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a bona fide factor other than the protected characteristic — one that is job-related and consistent with business necessity. And prior salary cannot, by itself, be that factor.