Mississippi Passes Pay Equity Law

At present, just one state doesn’t have an equal pay regulation. That state is Mississippi. Absent a veto from Governor Tate Reeves, nonetheless, on July 1, 2022, Mississippi will be a part of all different states when its equal pay regulation goes into impact. Let’s take a more in-depth look.

HB 770

In March of this 12 months, each the Mississippi Home and Senate handed Home Invoice (HB) 770, which prohibits employers from paying staff of various sexes completely different wages if they’re performing “equal work on a job, the efficiency of which requires equal talent, schooling, effort and accountability, and which is carried out beneath comparable working situations.” The regulation additionally prohibits retaliation in opposition to an worker for taking motion to implement rights beneath HB 770 or aiding in enforcement of it.

Much like the federal Equal Pay Act (EPA), nonetheless, HB 770 permits variations in pay if they’re based mostly on:

• A seniority system;
• A advantage system;
• A system that measures earnings by amount or high quality of manufacturing; or
• Every other issue aside from intercourse.

With regard to “every other issue aside from intercourse,” the regulation makes clear that such elements can embody a person’s earlier wage historical past and continuity of employment in distinction to the histories and employment continuity of staff of the alternative intercourse who work for the employer. As well as, whether or not there was a contest with different employers for the person’s companies and whether or not the person tried to barter for increased wages as in comparison with staff of the alternative intercourse who work for the employer can justify disparities in pay.

HB 770 will apply to any employer (together with staff of the state, its political subdivisions, and instrumentalities of subdivisions) that employs 5 or extra staff, and to staff who work 40 hours or extra every week. Staff alleging violations of HB 770 might file a civil lawsuit in circuit court docket inside two years from the day they need to have recognized of the violation and, if profitable, might search affordable attorneys’ charges, prejudgment curiosity, again pay, and prices.

Due to the mirrored functions of HB 770 and the federal EPA, nonetheless, HB 770 states that an worker might not file each a lawsuit beneath HB 770 and a lawsuit beneath the EPA. It states that if staff file a lawsuit beneath HB 770, they have to waive any proper to aid beneath the EPA, and if additionally they provoke a lawsuit beneath HB 770, the claims beneath HB 770 shall be dismissed.

Additional cementing the connection between HB 770 and the EPA, HB 770 states that any revealed selections of the USA Supreme Court docket, the USA Court docket of Appeals for the fifth Circuit (whose rulings apply to all Mississippi employers), and the USA District Courts embracing the state circuit court docket wherein a lawsuit beneath HB 770 is pending are ”thought-about necessary authority and shall be adopted by the circuit court docket” until and “till there’s a opposite ruling deciphering [HB 770] by the Mississippi Supreme Court docket or the Mississippi Court docket of Appeals.”

Takeaway

Though HB 770 is new to Mississippi, its prohibitions aren’t new to employers already coated by the EPA. That stated, state court docket motion involving equal pay claims is a brand new twist for such claims, regardless that the circuit courts should observe federal precedent. It stays to be seen how usually staff search redress in state court docket for equal pay violations as a substitute of federal court docket, whether or not tendencies will develop in sure counties throughout the state, and whether or not the Mississippi Supreme Court docket or Court docket of Appeals will interpret HB 770 in another way from the EPA. Keep tuned.

Martin J. Regimbal is a shareholder of The Kullman Agency in Columbus, Mississippi. Martin represents employers in labor and employment regulation issues and has litigated collective actions beneath the Honest Labor Requirements Act, issues introduced beneath Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the People with Disabilities Act, the Household and Medical Depart Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and different federal and state statutes in a wide range of courts. You possibly can attain him at 662-244-8825 or mjr@kullmanlaw.com.