3rd Circ. Must Reject EEOC's Flawed Equal Pay Theory
On Feb. 5, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed an amicus brief in Cartee-Haring and Marinello v. Central Bucks School District, pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The plaintiffs in the case are English teachers, and the commission supports their contention that their lower pay rate, relative to a male social studies teacher — i.e., the comparator, or person used as a standard of comparison — establishes a prima facie case of sex discrimination in pay under the Equal Pay Act.
We join them in referring to this principle as the "single comparator" rule. Under this rule, the lower pay of other males, who perform similar work and may outnumber the one or two males shown to be paid more than the plaintiffs, is deemed irrelevant to whether the plaintiffs' pay was decided on the basis of sex. Indeed, this evidence of other potential comparators was precluded at trial.
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