Retail Industry Update - June 2011, No. 2

In This Newsletter:

- Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, And Equal Pay Act Claims Are Everywhere By Ed Harold (New Orleans) and Michael S. Mitchell (New Orleans)

Because of recent high-profile cases claiming gender-based pay discrimination, the Equal Pay Act has taken on a new life. Newspapers continue to tout the controversial statistic that women earn only 77 cents for each dollar men earn. That statistic does not distinguish among jobs and is actually a comparison of apples to oranges, argue critics. Nevertheless, there are certainly situations where women on average are paid less than similarly-situated men. The fact that retail giant Wal-Mart is the defendant in the first major case of this kind in many years has placed all retailers in the crosshairs of the wage and hour plaintiffs’ bar.....

- Terminating Employees For Theft, Part 2 By Ed Harold (New Orleans)

In our last issue (Retail Update, March 2011) we looked at some ideas about how to investigate, catch, and terminate employees who are stealing from the company. In this conclusion, we’ll talk about some ways to avoid – or at least lessen the possibility of – getting sued....