The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training’s (“RIDLT”) much anticipated Proposed Regulations (“Regulations”) to the Rhode Island Pay Equity Law (the “Act”) have arrived. As we previously discussed, on July 6, 2021, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed the Act into law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2023. The crux of the Act prohibits an employer from paying wages to any of its employees at a rate less than the rate it pays to employees of another race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age (40 or over), or country of ancestral origin for the performance of comparable work unless the employer can demonstrate that the wage differential is pursuant to one or more permissible justifications prescribed under the Act.

The RIDLT has announced that members of the general public have until June 30, 2022 to request additional information from or submit written or oral comments to the RIDLT with regards to the Regulations. An in-person public hearing intended to elicit comments from the general public with respect to the Regulations will be held on June 23, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. at the RIDLT. The Regulations will officially be finalized at some point following June 30, 2022.

While the bulk of the Regulations’ provisions are needless reiterations of the Act’s text, the Regulations contain some new and otherwise noteworthy provisions as follows:

1. Employers’ Responses to Wage Range Inquiries Must Include Minimum and...

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