If an employer pays a woman less than it pays males, there isn’t always a legal violation.
The key question: Are the woman and the higher-paid males essentially doing the same work?
Sometimes, a pay discrepancy can be easily justified because it is clear that the jobs differ significantly.
But in other cases – like this one involving an employer in Iowa – the lines can get somewhat blurred, and job similarities can make the question a bit tougher to answer. And it is in these cases that employers must be especially ready to show that a pay difference is based on a factor other than sex.
The case involved Maria Mayorga, who started working as a general cleaner for Marsden Building Maintenance LLC in 2013. In that position, Mayorga was paid $12 an hour to perform general janitorial tasks. Those tasks included cleaning, sanitizing, vacuuming, and disposing of trash.
Although Mayorga left the company in 2014, she returned in 2018 to do the same job at the same pay rate. She was soon given more responsibility as a general manager. In that role, she inspected the work of other cleaning employees.
Mayorga took a leave of absence in December 2019. When she was ready to return, Marsden had filled her position with someone else. But it wanted to retain her because it considered her to be a hard worker.
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