Employers can legally pay women less than men based off of a woman’s salary history, a court ruled last week — an employment practice that perpetuates the gender wage gap.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California overturned a 2015 lower court ruling that basing salaries exclusively on pay history is discriminatory against women.
In its 3-0 decision, the federal court cited a 1982 ruling that determined “prior salary alone can be a ‘factor other than sex’ if the defendant shows that its use of prior salary was reasonable and effectuated a business policy.”
