Iowa Pay Equity
Statute
Classes protected
- Age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability
Key language on pay discrimination
- Unfair or discriminatory practice for an employer to discriminate against any employee “by paying wages to such employee at a rate less than the rate paid to other employees who are employed within the same establishment for equal work on jobs, the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.”
- “[A] state department, board, commission, or agency shall not discriminate in compensation for work of comparable worth between jobs held predominantly by women and jobs predominantly by men. ‘Comparable worth’ means the value of work as measured by the composite of the skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions normally required in the performance of work.”"
Exceptions for pay disparities (including affirmative defenses)
- Seniority system
- Merit system
- System which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production
- Pay differential based on any other factor other than age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, or disability of such employee
Other key provisions
- Applies to employers who regularly employ 4 or more individuals (members of the employer’s family are not counted as employees)
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