Analysis of Legal Business Environment: Rizo vs. Yovino and Wernsing

This case study examines the legal business environment, focusing on two key cases: Rizo vs. Yovino and Wernsing vs. Human Department Services. The Rizo case involves a female mathematics specialist claiming violation of the Equal Pay Act due to lower pay compared to male counterparts, with the court debating the legality of basing pay on previous salary. Conversely, the Wernsing case supports using prior salary as a defense under the Equal Pay Act. The analysis highlights the differing legal reasoning based on the circuits used, with the Rizo case emphasizing the intent of the Equal Pay Act. The study concludes that the reasoning in Rizo has more support because it considers the Act's objectives and democratic principles, advocating for equality in the workplace. The document references several sources to support its arguments and findings.

1 Running Head: Legal Business Environment
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2 Running Head: Legal Business Environment
Question 1
The Rizo vs. Yovino case concerned a female Mathematics specialist for Fresno County,
who brought legal proceedings under the Equal Pay Act, claiming that the school contravened
the law by paying her less compared to her male counterparts, (Baron & Baron 2013). The
school didn’t disagree with the claim but justified that it was based on her previous salary. Thus,
turning the whole case on whether an employer can consider, in full or in part, the previous
earnings of an individual in determining wages, (Klapper & Parker 2010). It its holding
therefore, the court relied on the tenth and eleventh circuit which provides that: an employer’s
Equal Pay Act defense cannot entirely be based on ones initial salary as it alone cannot validate a
disparity in payment.
Question 2
On the other hand, in determining the Wernsing vs. Human Department Services case,
the court based the holding on the seventh and eighth circuit which provides that: an employee’s
previous salary should be employed by an employer as a defense to any claim raised under the
Equal pay act. This therefore resulted to various circuits to be put in use before the United States
Supreme Court, (Demirgüç-Kunt, Love & Maksimovic 2014).
Question 3
As illustrated above, the holding in the two cases differs which is as a result of the
different legal reasoning by the judges during determination. For instance in the Rizo case, the
judges went further into looking at the main reason why the Equal Pay Act was put into place,
which emerged to be that: due to the kind of system used in industries and the role a man was
held to play in society, his salary had been placed much higher than that of women and therefore
in coming up with the Equal Pay Act the congress wanted to remedy the issue of less payment
for same work by different genders hence them holding that an employer in proving disparity
may base their argument on any other factor such as system or merit other than issue of sex,
(Hellman, Jones, Schankerman & Kaufmann 2009). Similarly, the judges agreed that a plaintiff
must show a prima facie case by proving the issue of different remuneration being given to
different sexes for same amount of work (EEOC Vs Maricopa County Coll. District)
Question 4
Following the above illustrations, the reasoning from the case of Rizo vs. Yovino where
the tenth and eleventh circuit were used in determination has more support since, in deciding the
Wernsing case more consideration was given to the factors to be used in defense unlike in Rizo
case where the judges went further into establishing the rationale behind the implementation of
the Equal Payment Act and made a decision bearing in mind the objective of the set statute,

3 Running Head: Legal Business Environment
(Child & Möllering 2013). Also considering the concept of democracy which calls for respect to
the rule of law including equality rights, any legislation or precedent that is set with the aim of
attaining a higher democratic level should be highly advocated in all spheres of life unlike a law
or decision which contravenes the spirit of democracy that most institution and states are fighting
to achieve.

4 Running Head: Legal Business Environment
References
Baron, D. P., & Baron, D. P. (2013). Business and its environment (p. 2). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Child, J., & Möllering, G. (2013). Contextual confidence and active trust development in the
Chinese business environment. Organization Science, 14(1), 69-80.
Demirgüç-Kunt, A., Love, I., & Maksimovic, V. (2014). Business environment and the
incorporation decision. The World Bank.
Hellman, J. S., Jones, G., Schankerman, M., & Kaufmann, D. (2009). Measuring Governance,
Corruption, and State Capture: How Firms and Bureaucrats Shape the Business
Environment in Transit. The World Bank.
Klapper, L. F., & Parker, S. C. (2010). Gender and the business environment for new firm
creation. The World Bank Research Observer, 26(2), 237-257.