We are pleased to report that the federal court has denied Southern New England Telephone Company, d/b/a Frontier Communications of Connecticut's Motion for Summary in an Equal Pay Act (EPA) case entitled Marzano v. Southern New England Telephone Company, d/b/a Frontier Communications of Connecticut, United States District Court, District of Connecticut, Case No. 3:16-cv-01274.
Congress passed the Equal Pay Act to legislate out of existence a long-held, but outmoded societal view that a man should be paid more than a woman for the same work. An employer violates the EPA if it pays wages to an employee at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility and which are performed under similar working conditions. Thus, in order to prove a Equal Pay Act violation, one needs to prove (1) that the employer pays different wages to employees of the opposite sex; (2) that the employees perform equal work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility; and (3) that the jobs are performed under similar working conditions.
In order to effectuate the EPA's goal (equal pay for equal work), the law must be enforced. The law is only enforced if female employees who are not being paid the same as their male counterparts for equal work take legal action.