Carney R. Shegerian, an employee rights attorney and founder of Shegerian & Associates, a Santa Monica-based litigation law firm representing employees, discusses disparate pay and discrimination on the basis of gender.

A pending class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart has brought to light pay discrimination against female workers.

On April 26, 2010, the Associated Press reported, “In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said [Wal-Mart] the world’s largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs and that female employees receive fewer promotions and have to wait longer for those promotions than male counterparts.”

“It is hard to believe that it has been nearly five decades since the Equal Pay Act went into law and still men and women’s salaries continue to be grossly disparate,” states Shegerian.

Borgna Brunner, author of The Wage Gap, writes that President Obama has vowed to reduce the wage gap between the genders: women currently make approximately 80 cents for every dollar that men earn.

“In California, there are many laws that protect men and women from discrimination on the basis of gender,” states Shegerian who urges all to take a stand against discrimination in the workplace.

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