The Michigan pay equity and transparency provision discussed on this BLOG is located in the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act. Under the act, employers must pay equal wages to employees of another sex for equal work requiring equal skill. The bill addressing pay transparency is HB 4406. It would amend the existing Michigan Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act to, upon request by an employee, require the employer to provide wage information for similarly situated employees covering a period of up to three years. “Similarly situated employees” are “those within the same job classification as the employee requesting the information or whose duties are comparable in skill, effort, responsibility, working conditions, and training to those of the requesting employee.”
Equal Pay
Under the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, employers with two or more employees are prohibited from discriminating between employees on the basis of sex by paying employees at a lesser rate paid to employees of another sex for equal work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility performed under similar working conditions. However, this does not apply to payments made pursuant to:
A seniority or merit system;
A system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or
A differential based on a factor other than sex.
An employer in violation of these provisions must not reduce the wage rate of an employee to comply with the law. Any amount owing to an employee that has been withheld in violation of these protections is considered unpaid minimum wages.