Corning Glass Works v. Brennan

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In Brief

In the first Supreme Court case involving the Equal Pay Act, the Court held that plaintiffs under the EPA must prove that an employer pays an employee of one sex more than an employee of the other sex for substantially equal work.

What Happened in Court

The Supreme Court examined the Equal Pay Act for the first time. The Court found that plaintiffs bear the burden of proving that an employer pays different wages to employees of the opposite sex for substantially equal work. Once a plaintiff makes this initial showing, the burden shifts to the employer to show that there the difference is due to one of the Equal Pay Act’s four exceptions relating to a seniority system, a merit system, a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production or a differential based on any other factor other than sex.