New state law requires equal pay for equal work

(JANUARY 4, 2019) A new state law began January 1, 2019. It's called Oregon's Equal Pay Act. It helps to protect people from discrimination at work. The new law applies to people who do similar jobs. It makes it illegal to pay one person more than another person if the only difference between them is gender, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, or age.

These characteristics describe people who are part of "protected classes". A protected class of people is a group of people with protections against discrimination. In Oregon, these include:

• Gender - This usually means a person's self-identity as either male or female. However, some people do not identify as either male or female. Those individuals often say they are non-binary or gender neutral.
• Race - In the U.S., this usually means one or more of the following groups: White American, Black or African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian American, Native American and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Many people identify with more than one race.
• Color - This refers to color of a person's skin.
• Religion - Religion refers to an person's choice of believe in a god or gods and the ceremonies and traditions that are part of that system. People who do not believe in a god are called atheists. People who believe it is impossible to know if a god exists or not are called agnostics.
• Sex - This refers to the anatomical (physical) differences between male and female. This is different from gender, which is a person's social role or personal identity or expression.
• Sexual orientation - This is usually defined as LGBTQ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer. For example, a gay man is a man who loves another man, while a lesbian is a woman who loves another woman. Bisexual means a person loves both sexes or genders. A trans person is a person who has changed their sex and/or gender. Queer is a slang term for people who are LGBT. Caution sometimes queer can be a positive word, and sometimes it can be an offensive word.
• National origin - This refers to the country that a person comes from. For example, Mexico is the country of origin for a person who moves to the U.S. from Mexico.
• Marital status - This usually means single (not married); married; divorced (married before, but not now); widowed (married, but spouse died); separated (still married, but no longer a couple).
• Veteran status - A “veteran” is a person who served in the military.
• Disability - A disability is a significant physical or mental impairment, such as blindness.
• Age - This refers to how old a person is.

However, people in similar jobs still can receive different salaries for other things. These things include seniority, production, or education. A difference in seniority means one person has worked at a company longer than another person. A difference in production means one person does more work than another person. A difference in education means one person as more training than another person.

The law is important because gender discrimination is unfair. Women often receive less money than men for the same job. For example, The Oregonian newspaper reports that when a man and a woman do the same work, a woman earns only 79% as much as a man. This means that if a man earns $1, a woman who does the same work earns only 79 cents. The law applies to both salary and important benefits, such as health insurance.