Equal Pay Act
How the Law Works
Establishment Tests. The Equal Pay Act applies only to jobs in the same establishment that involve equal work. Determining whether jobs being compared for Equal Pay Act purposes are in the same establishment is not just a question of whether the jobs happen to be in the same physical facility. The EEOC, which enforces the Act, enacted interpretive regulations in 1986 that defined "establishment" under the Equal Pay Act.
According to the EEOC definition, an establishment is a distinct physical place of business or "enterprise" which may include several separate places of physical portions of a business may be created as one establishment.
In making this
determination, the EEOC would consider such factors as:
the degree of central
administrative control of hiring, setting wages, and assigning locations;
the interchange of employees between work locations; the identity of daily
duties;
and similar working conditions.
Conversely, in some instances two or more portions of a single physical place of business may be considered more than one "establishment" if the portions are physically segregated, engaged in functionally separate operations, have separate employees, and maintain separate records.