California’s Pay Transparency ACT, SB-1162, has been making waves. The bill came into effect on January 1, 2023, and, in some cases, can furnish the basis of a lawsuit for unequal (discriminatory) pay claims.
Recently, billionaire Elon Musk discovered this for himself as his aerospace company, SpaceX, has been sued by a female aeronautical engineer stating that she was paid $23,000.00 less than SpaceX’s male counterparts. In her lawsuit, Ashley Foltz stated that she was hired at $92,000 as a base salary—but found out through California’s mandatory pay transparency scales that she was paid $23,000 less than her male counterparts.
While SpaceX has not officially commented on the lawsuit, the fact is that pay scales required by SB-1162 can be used as evidence of discriminatory wage practices. While this lawsuit may be the first of its kind, we suspect that SB-1162 will be similarly deployed against other employers.
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