Publication Date
6-1-2025
Document Type
Casenote
Abstract
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit deepened the circuit split over whether consideration of prior pay is a non-sex-based factor that can be used when setting employee wages. In Boyer v. United States, the plaintiff sued the United States under the Equal Pay Act (EPA) for the pay disparity between her and her male equivalent. The court’s decision highlighted how consideration of prior pay alone in setting employee salary can perpetuate the historical sex-based wage discrimination in the United States and frustrate the primary purpose of the EPA which is “equal pay for equal work.” The Federal Circuit’s decision in Boyer could make the federal government vulnerable to significant liability due its applicability to all federal employees across the nation and by making it more difficult for the government to mount a successful defense to the EPA.
Recommended Citation
Choudhury, Intisar
(2025)
"Prior Pay Parlay: The U.S. Federal Circuit Partly Adopts the Middle Ground Approach to Prior Pay Under the Equal Pay Act,"
Mercer Law Review: Vol. 76:
No.
4, Article 13.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol76/iss4/13