Women making minimal progress in closing wage gap:  The wage gap between men and women has changed little over the past decade with women making an average of 82% of what men make -- not much above the 80% average for women back in 2002, according to Pew Center research. As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents. Many factors make up the stagnation including women flocking to lower paying types of jobs as well as plain old discrimination, but experts say the gap could be closed faster through more generous family leave policies, parity and wage transparency laws, and more dedicated efforts to build truly inclusive company cultures.  Source:  Pew Research Center 3/1/23, 2022 State of the Gender Pay Gap Report by Payfactors

Surprisingly, unmarried women’s pay gap is growing too: Never-married women are the fastest growing cohort in the labor market. Yet, as their ranks have swelled their wage gap has, too.  The group’s median weekly earnings are 92.1% of what men who have never married make, a new report from Wells Fargo found. That gap has increased from a decade ago, when they brought in 95.8% of what men did.   Overall, women make around 83% of what men do in the US, according to the Census Bureau. But given that the motherhood penalty accounts for such a large part of the pay gap, Wells Fargo economist Sarah House was surprised by the growing wage gap among single women. “Having more years of work experience and less likelihood of taking breaks to raise a child at the same time that you have growing educational attainment among women — I would’ve expected to see some more tangible inroads in terms of the pay gap there,” she said. The persistence of the wage gap is in part due to pay disparities between industries dominated by women, such as teaching, and those dominated by men, such as construction, House said.  Source:  Bloomberg 3/8/23

Attendance point system may violate the ADA:  An Illinois federal district court has ruled that AutoZone may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in establishing a no-fault points-based attendance policy, despite its exceptions for absences related to disability. The case is EEOC v. AutoZone Inc., N.D. Ill., No. 14-cv-3385 (Sept. 30, 2022). AutoZone’s attendance policy consisted of a 12-point system with progressive discipline in the form of a verbal warning, a first written warning, a second written warning, a serious violation, and termination. Any employee who accumulated 12 points, regardless of fault, could be terminated. Employees were also subject to termination if they failed to call in or report to work for two consecutive days, based on job abandonment.  Employees would not receive occurrence points for absences or tardiness covered by the company’s short-term disability leave, approved leave under the FMLA, emergency volunteer responsibilities, or approved vacation, funeral leave, military leave, jury duty, hospitalization, work-related injuries, or leaves of absence. AutoZone had an ADA policy and a dispute mechanism for employees to contest occurrence points and discipline received and an AutoZone regional human resources manager would review the employee’s medical issues and other circumstances that might weigh against termination.  Source:  Hall Benefits Law 3/17/23

With layoffs on the rise, don’t use email to announce them to employees: Layoffs announced by U.S. employers quintupled in February from a year earlier and were the largest at the start of any year since 2009, led by technology companies.  There were 77,770 job cuts announced last month, up from 15,245 in February 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That brought the two-month total to 180,713 jobs, the most for any January-February period since 2009, the outplacement firm said Thursday. According to a new Eagle Hill Consulting poll of U.S. workers, while only a small portion of workers are concerned about layoffs (33%), employees reported clear views on how to handle worker layoffs. 85% say layoffs via email are wrong. Instead, employees say they prefer an in-person meeting (72%) to provide notification of a layoff.  Source:  CCH 3/13/23, EBN 3/9/23

Japan’s population is hitting a critical point: Last year, about twice as many people died as were born in Japan, with fewer than 800,000 births and about 1.58 million deaths. Japan will cease to exist if it can’t slow a fall in its birth rate that threatens to wreck the social safety net and economy, according to an adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The population has fallen to 124.6 million from a peak of just over 128 million reached in 2008, and the pace of decline is increasing. Meanwhile the proportion of people 65 or over rose to more than 29% last year. While South Korea has a lower fertility rate, Japan’s population is shrinking faster.  Source:  Bloomberg 3/8/23

Fabricated evidence by an ex-employee?  A social worker sued her ex-employer, a non-profit, claiming (among other things) that she was fired for complaining that the employer didn't comply with requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition to denying those allegations, the employer counterclaimed against her, alleging that she was stealing gift cards intended for HUD clients.  As the case progressed, the plaintiff's attorney threatened to go after the employer for sanctions. In support, she produced an email supposedly from her supervisor authorizing the plaintiff to provide the gift cards to HUD clients but also to assemble 300 pandemic relief kits that included gift cards. The email was dated March 27, 2020.  The employer did some sleuthing and found that the supervisor never sent the email, and hired a computer forensic expert with whom it had no prior relationship. He confirmed that the email was nowhere to be found and also found that the same supervisor sent emails at that time with a signature block that didn't match the signature block on the March 27 email. In addition, the March 27 email had a 50th anniversary logo on it that the employer had not started using until August of that year.  Apart from those little discrepancies, the March 27 email seemed to be perfectly legit.  Guess who won?  Source: Constangy Brooks Smith & Prophete LLP  3/10/23