Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, a nonprofit healthcare provider operating fifteen clinics across Alameda County, California, agreed to pay $195,000 to settle an Equal Pay Act charge resolved by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The case arose after a female physician assistant filed a complaint alleging that she and two other women were paid less than a male nurse practitioner who had no prior experience but performed equivalent job duties at the same facility.
The EEOC's investigation determined that from April 2022 through August 2023 the women were compensated at lower rates than their male counterpart, despite having comparable or superior qualifications. The EEOC found that the disparities violated both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which require employers to pay men and women equally for substantially similar work.
Without admitting liability, the employer entered into a two-year conciliation agreement that includes paying compensatory damages to three affected employees, revising its nondiscrimination and compensation policies, conducting a pay equity study, establishing objective and transparent criteria for setting salaries, and providing equal pay training to managers and staff involved in compensation decisions.
The health center must also post notices at its facilities informing employees of their rights under federal equal pay and anti-discrimination laws.
Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/tiburcio-vasquez-health-center-pay-195000-settle-eeoc-equal-pay-charge
Commentary
Pay inequity is sex-based discrimination. The federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that men and women be paid the same for equal work in the same workplace.
"Equal work" means the work is "substantially equal". A job title will not determine whether two jobs are "substantially equal."
Equal pay includes not only wages, but also all other forms of payment, such as salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, profit-sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses, and benefits.
Never retaliate against an employee for raising the issue of equal pay or for participating as a witness in an investigation – even if it turns out there is no violation of the law.
Once the facts are determined, if an equal pay violation is found, cure the pay inequity - not by reducing the wages of the higher paid employee, but by increasing the wages of the underpaid employee.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibits employers from paying someone unequally because of their sex.
For healthcare employers, where teams often include licensed professionals with overlapping duties, adopting a structured and documented approach to compensation is both a compliance necessity and a reputational safeguard.
To prevent liability, healthcare administrators should ensure that pay scales are standardized and tied to job analysis and updated market benchmarks. This alignment fosters internal consistency between roles carrying comparable duties and external competitiveness within the industry.
Organizations should also establish review mechanisms to regularly assess pay equity across job categories, ensuring that disparities are justified by legitimate business factors rather than subjective influence. Incorporating periodic pay equity audits, creating transparent salary bands, and training managers on unconscious bias in compensation decisions help prevent accidental discrimination.
