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11 PJI INTRO | INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO EQUAL PAY ACT INSTRUCTIONS

These Equal Pay Act instructions vary from the pattern established in the previous employment discrimination instructions. This different structure is due to the following circumstances:

1) An Equal Pay Act plaintiff is not required to prove an intent to discriminate, so there is no basis for a mixed-motive or pretext instruction.

2) There is no cause of action for hostile work environment under the Equal Pay Act, because the Act only grants recovery of equal pay for equal work.

3) There is no separate cause of action for disparate treatment under the Equal Pay Act, because the basic cause of action under the Act is one for disparate treatment in pay.

4) There is no need for separate instructions for definitions, because there is only one basic instruction for an Equal Pay Act claim, and the pertinent definitions are included within it.

5) The damages available in a basic Equal Pay Act claim differ from those available under the other employment discrimination statutes, and more importantly differ from the damages available in a retaliation action. Thus, the damage instructions need to be bifurcated into basic Equal Pay Act claims and retaliation claims.

6) The Supreme Court decided in Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status is a subset of discrimination on account of sex under Title VII. It is not clear if this principle applies to the EPA.


(Last Updated October 2018)