Lynne Anderson Addresses Employer Considerations for Pay Disclosure Laws With Bloomberg Tax

In “More Pay Disclosure Laws Exposing Employers to Bias Suits,” labor and employment partner Lynne Anderson spoke to Bloomberg Tax about what employers need to know as efforts to improve pay equity by publicizing salary amounts or ranges for new positions increase.

“There might be no intent to discriminate in any way, but the reality is that there weren’t necessarily any guardrails in place to set pay bands or a uniformity of factors that help drive” salary decisions, said Anderson.

“The audits are great because you will figure out what you’re doing and why, and make any necessary changes, so you understand what factors are driving your compensation decisions,” Anderson added, “When you get to a point where you have to post [a salary range], you can answer in a way that’s accurate and consistent. If you provide an answer that’s not accurate, even if it’s not motivated by discrimination, a plaintiff will say, ‘That answer is inaccurate, so I’m going to assert it’s a pretext for discrimination.’”

The full article is available for Bloomberg Tax subscribers.