Rhode Island’s Pay Equity Act was expanded in 2023, creating additional obligations for employers with employees located in, or working from, the state. Once only prohibiting differences in wages based on gender, Rhode Island’s Pay Equity Act prohibits differences in wages based on additional protected classes, including race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, or country of ancestral origin. In other words, employers are prohibited from paying employees belonging to one or more protected classes less than other employees when performing work that “requires substantially similar skill, effort, and responsibility, and is performed under similar working conditions.”
Lawful differentials in pay can be based on factors such as a seniority or merit system, or a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; provided, however, that these factors are applied fairly and reasonably and are not being used as a front for unlawful wage discrimination. Importantly, an employee’s wage history, standing alone, cannot be used to justify an unlawful wage differential, and an employer cannot lower their employees’ wages in order to bring itself into compliance with the law.
Additionally, employers are prohibited from relying on an applicant’s wage history when deciding whether to consider the applicant for employment and when determining what to pay the applicant upon hire. Employers are allowed to make limited inquiries into an applicant’s wage history but can only do so after giving the applicant an initial offer of employment which contains an offer of compensation.
Upon request, the employer must provide a “wage range” to an internal or external applicant for a position, or the “range that the employer anticipates relying on in setting wages for the position.” For an internal applicant, this may include reference to the applicable pay scale, a previously determined wage range for the position, or the actual range of wages for those holding equivalent positions. The same applies to external applicants, with the addition of reference to the budgeted amount for the position.
Employers are also required to display posters containing information on the Pay Equity Act in the workplace (or distribute the same through email or text message to employees who work remotely). These posters, along with other required postings, can be found on the Department of Labor and Training’s website.
