Are you considering contacting a lawyer about discrimination, harassment, or mistreatment at work?  It may be tempting to wait.  You think: “Let’s see how this plays out.  Learn if the company will do the right thing.  Maybe they will promote you, or transfer you, and maybe things will get better.  You have a lot on […]

For job applicants, disclosing their current or prior salary can be one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of interviewing for a new job. Beginning on October 1, 2020, however, a new Maryland law will go into effect, prohibiting employers from asking job applicants for their wage history or relying on wage history in making hiring […]

If you are an employee in the United States, you probably have given up your constitutional right to access the courts and receive a trial by a jury for claims against your employer, or will soon do so. Many, if not most, large employers impose arbitration agreements (sometimes misleadingly referred to as “policies”) on their […]

Imagine this scenario: a corporation runs health spas, each of which is divided into a men’s division and a women’s division that operate on alternate days.  Male managers run the men’s division, while female managers run the women’s division.  Because there are far more female customers interested in spa services, the corporation decides to compensate […]

“In 1963, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act with a mandate as simple as it was profound: equal pay for equal work.” So begins the opinion in Rizo v. Yovino, a recent Ninth Circuit case holding that prior pay may not be used to justify a pay discrepancy between men and women—even if it is […]

When it comes to workplace discrimination, your rights often depend on the state where you work.  That’s because states can pass laws that offer even stronger protections for employees than federal law.  Last year, New Jersey did just that when it passed what may be the broadest pay equity law in the nation, the Diane […]

In honor of Equal Pay Day, four women currently engaged in a gender discrimination lawsuit against the national labor and employment firm Ogletree Deakins opened up about the struggles and rewards of challenging pay discrimination, and the impact of women breaking the silence. As changemakers seeking to reform the entrenched legal industry, plaintiffs Dawn Knepper, […]

The devil is in the details. In this case, the details are pay data collected by the United States government in an attempt to quantify, if possible, gender or racial discrepancies in pay. With this in mind, during the Obama administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decided to improve the quality of the pay […]

Although many employees describe what they face at work as a “hostile work environment,” frequently what they are experiencing or observing is evidence of another type of workplace discrimination. It is therefore important for employees who believe they are experiencing discrimination in the workplace—and the lawyers who represent them—to look closely and carefully at all […]

Over the past few years, there has been a movement to restrict employers from inquiring into the salary histories of prospective employees. The rationale for this prohibition is clear: certain jobs and workers have historically been underappreciated and underpaid; consequently, workers in these jobs are anchored to lower starting salaries. If employers can ask about […]

A few months ago, I blogged about the considerable evidence of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the medical profession. Here, I turn to the persistent racial and ethnic disparities among physicians. Like gender disparities, racial and ethnic disparities in medicine manifest in multiple forms—in pay, promotions, and harassment from colleagues and patients. A growing […]

New Census Bureau research, comparing the amount of money couples report to the Census with “true” earnings from IRS tax records, shows a surprising result: when women in different-sex couples earn more than their male spouses, “[h]usbands say they earn more than they are and wives underreport their income.” Both spouses exaggerate the man’s earnings […]

The Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act takes effect on July 1, 2018, giving New Jersey one of the strongest equal pay laws in the country and permitting plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases to recover substantial damages. The Act is not limited to gender, but protects all employees from pay discrimination based on that individual’s […]

Law 360 recently reported that two law firms are revamping their performance evaluation process for associate attorneys by replacing formal annual reviews with more informal, frequent performance assessments. Law360 also reported that other BigLaw firms are likely to follow suit. Law firms that have initiated these changes explain that more frequent, timely feedback on performance […]

When will #MeToo come to medicine? While high-profile cases of sexual misconduct have rocked individual medical institutions—Yale in 2014 and 2015; USC in 2017; and Michigan State this year—the profession has escaped the level of public scrutiny sweeping entertainment, media, academia, and politics. And it’s not for lack of evidence. A study appearing in the […]