The California Equal Pay Act, Labor Code section 1197.5, does not prohibit all variations in employee pay. The EPA prohibits only discriminatory variations in employee pay based on sex, race or ethnicity.
What if an employee is fired for complaining that other employees doing substantially similar work are paid more than he is and that he believed such a pay gap violated the EPA? And what if the employee also concedes he did not believe he was being paid less because of his sex, race or ethnicity? May a jury properly award the employee damages for his employer’s violation of California’s whistleblower law? Yes, the San Diego-based division of the California Court of Appeal recently ruled.
In Contreras v. Green Thumb Produce, Inc., the court of appeal held plaintiff had introduced enough evidence at trial that his belief his employer had violated the EPA was reasonable – even though mistaken – to justify a jury verdict in his favor on his whistleblower claim.
After Manuel Contreras learned he was earning less than other Green Thumb Produce employees doing similar work, he sought to confirm his assumption that California law prohibited any difference in pay for employees doing similar work. Contreras contacted the local office of the labor commissioner.
A deputy labor commissioner told Contreras that Green Thumb might be violating the EPA. The labor official directed Contreras to the labor commissioner’s website for more information about the EPA. Contreras concluded from...
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