California Pay Equity Expert Witness

CALIFORNIA PAY EQUITY LITIGATION & COMPLIANCE

California pay equity: employee comparisons, pay scales and reporting.

California’s framework combines equal-pay protections, pay-scale disclosures and pay-data reporting. Its Equal Pay Act covers substantially similar work across sex, race and ethnicity and is distinct from federal law. Grahall provides statistical analysis and expert-witness support for employers and for plaintiff or defense counsel.

The California Equal Pay Act, in Practice

Labor Code section 1197.5 requires equal pay for “substantially similar work,” viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility performed under similar working conditions — a materially broader test than the federal “equal work” standard, and one that reaches across different job titles and different worksites. The protection extends beyond sex to race and ethnicity. Once a disparity is shown, the burden shifts to the employer to prove the entire gap is explained by seniority, merit, production, or a bona fide factor other than sex that is job-related and consistent with business necessity. Two things California takes off the table: prior salary can never justify a disparity (a rule the Ninth Circuit reinforced in Rizo v. Yovino), and salary-history inquiries have generally been prohibited since 2018, subject to statutory exceptions. Remedies under the California Equal Pay Act include unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and interest. Under the SB 642 amendments effective January 1, 2026, a claim to recover wages generally must be filed within three years after the last date the cause of action occurs. The relief period is separate: a timely claim may recover for the period of the violation, up to six years. The statute preserves the discovery rule and continuing-violation doctrine where applicable. These periods concern California Equal Pay Act claims, not every wage or retaliation claim; counsel should assess the facts and applicable deadlines. See the California Labor Commissioner’s guidance, questions 8 and 12.

SB 1162: Transparency With Teeth

Employers with 15 or more employees generally must include the pay scale in postings for positions that may be filled in California, including remotely. The Labor Commissioner interprets coverage to require at least one employee currently located in California. Since January 1, 2026, the scale must be a good-faith estimate of the salary or hourly range the employer reasonably expects to pay upon hire. Employees may request the scale for their own positions. Posting violations can carry $100 to $10,000 civil penalties, subject to applicable statutory conditions.

Private employers with at least 100 payroll employees and at least one California employee generally must submit a Payroll Employee Report. A separate Labor Contractor Employee Report applies to private employers with at least 100 labor-contractor employees and at least one such worker in California. These are separate thresholds, not a combined payroll-plus-contractor count. Reports are due on the second Wednesday in May and contain prescribed demographic, job-category and pay data. Failure to file can result in court-ordered civil penalties of up to $100 per employee, or $200 for a subsequent failure. Individual employer reports are confidential under the reporting law; filing does not automatically make them public.

Where California Disputes Are Fought

• Class and representative matters — comparison evidence and statistical analysis where appropriate, subject to the separate legal requirements for the procedure and claims asserted.
• Individual Equal Pay Act and FEHA claims — legal and factual analysis of job comparisons, pay decisions and available explanations, with statistics used where appropriate.
• Agency matters — Civil Rights Department inquiries and Labor Commissioner citations arising from pay data reports and posting complaints.

How Grahall Helps in California

• Counsel-directed pay equity audits — testing pay against the substantially-similar standard before a posting, filing, or complaint exposes it, with remediation modeled on your timeline.

  Privilege and work-product protection are not automatic. Counsel should assess the governing jurisdiction, engagement purpose, disclosure duties and possible waiver before work begins or findings are shared. The expert’s analysis and conclusions remain independent.

• CRD pay data report analytics — the statistical work behind the May filing, including a pre-submission read of what the numbers will signal to the regulator.
• Posting-range architecture — building good-faith pay scales that satisfy the 2026 definition and survive the incumbents who will read them.
• Litigation support and expert testimony — comparator construction under the California standard, regression analysis controlling for lawful factors, class certification statistics, damages quantification, and rebuttal of opposing experts, for either side.

California Questions We Hear Most

What counts as “substantially similar work”?

The comparison concerns actual skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions, not titles alone. Employees with different titles or workplaces can be appropriate comparators. Job-content evidence and the applicable legal standard guide that determination; statistics may assist but do not decide it alone. Individual equal-pay claims do not require a large statistical group.

Can we rely on what an employee earned at their last job?

California generally prohibits seeking or relying on an applicant’s salary history. Limited exceptions include information disclosable under public-records law and voluntary, unprompted disclosure; the statute also permits questions about salary expectations. But prior salary cannot justify a sex-, race- or ethnicity-based disparity for substantially similar work. Counsel should assess any proposed use of salary information.

Does a proactive audit help in California?

A review can help identify potential disparities and evaluate corrective options, but it does not automatically establish compliance or shield the work from disclosure. Counsel should assess any privilege or work-product protection and available remedies. Public pay-scale postings differ from individual CRD pay-data reports, which are confidential under the reporting law.

See also: our national pay equity guide with all state laws, including the downloadable 2026 state chart.

This page provides general information reviewed on October 19, 2026, not legal advice or a complete compliance checklist. Confirm the requirements, exceptions and deadlines applicable to a particular matter with qualified California employment counsel.

This material is general educational information, not legal or tax advice for a particular matter. Requirements vary by jurisdiction and can change. Counsel and tax advisers should verify the governing rules. No tax treatment, privilege, admissibility or case outcome is guaranteed. An inquiry does not create an engagement.