What Memphis Employers Should Know About Pay Data and Equal Pay

Martin Thompson was quoted in The Commercial Appeal on February 2, 2016. The article “What Memphis Employers Should Know About Pay Data and Equal Pay” discussed Obama’s new proposal that requires employers with 100 or more workers to begin collecting pay data by gender, race and ethnicity.

Martin provided employers with advice on what they should know about the pay data proposal.

• Only employers and federal contractors with 100 more employees would be affected.
• The rules would require that pay data be added to an annual EEO-1 form that currently requires the number of employees by race, gender and ethnicity in 12 broad job categories.
• Pay data would be reported in one of 12 pay scales, ranging from under $19,000 to more than $208,000. Each employee's hours of work must be reported, although that poses a problem with salaried employees.
• Increased costs, lack of confidentiality when data is shared with agencies such as the Office of Contract and increased "improper" government action are predicted problems for employers, Thompson said.
• Employers with 100 or more employees should prepare for the September 2017 deadline for new pay data reporting by ensuring all pay practices comply with equality and fairness; address any areas of pay disparity and ensure equal employment opportunity and human resources practices and policies are up to date.

To read the full article, please visit The Commercial Appeal.