Time is Money, Ladies: The Ninth Circuit Prohibited Prior Pay as a Factor Other than Sex in Rizo v. Yovino

On February 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Rizo v. Yovino held that prior salary is not a valid defense against an employee’s claim under the Equal Pay Act (EPA). In so doing, the Ninth Circuit ruled that prior pay is an inherently gendered factor and became the first federal circuit court to eliminate it as a valid factor other than sex under the EPA. This Comment argues that Rizo was correctly decided but that it could have gone even further to narrow the pay gap in the United States.