Legal Question in Employment Law in Georgia
Equal Pay
The company I work for used to have night shift employees on a guaranteed 40 hour schedule, meaning they were at work until all the work was finished, and were then able to leave but were payed for 40 hours of work. They no longer offer the guaranteed 40 for employees.
-I now work the night shift but must work 32 hrs and i get paid for 32 hrs
-my co worker is on the guarenteed 40 schedule which he was given even after they took it away, plus i was hired before him and then moved to another department
-we work the same hours and do the same amount of work
-i have been at the company longer and i have more experience than my co worker
so, in reality, because he automatically gets paid for 40 hours, he essentially makes double what i make on an hourly basis because he works an average of 20 hours per week. I have been restricted to 32 hours of work, and i only get paid for 32.
is this legal for my company to do under any equal pay for equal work laws?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Equal Pay
There is no general "equal pay" law that requires everyone to get paid the same. Obviously, you are getting paid for the hours you work, presumably at the rate you agreed to by accepting and keeping the job. Other people may be paid more, and others less. They may have the same duties, or different duties. Absent a contract, most employment in GA is also "at will," meaning employees can get fired for any or no reason (with very few exceptions).