Court rules against employers in pay case

The Supreme Court is leaving in place a decision that employers can’t use past salary history to justify a pay disparity between male and female employees.

The court Thursday declined to take up a case from the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges there said the federal Equal Pay Act, which generally requires men and women to be paid equally for the same work, doesn’t allow past salary history to be used as justification for a pay disparity.

The case the justices turned away involved a Fresno County public school math consultant who sued after learning that she made less than male colleagues. Aileen Rizo challenged the school system’s policy that based all new employees’ salaries on their prior salaries. The school system argued that the policy didn’t favor men or women.

California law has since changed so employers can’t use a person’s salary history in determining their starting salary.