James M. Finberg

Finberg chiefly represents employees in class and collective actions involving workplace discrimination and wage and hour violations. In an era of growing furor over the gender pay gap, he's got high profile suits on that topic against Silicon Valley titans Google Inc. and Oracle America Inc.

The cases were among the first to be filed under California's Fair Pay Act, which took effect at the start of 2017 to close loopholes in state labor laws that had permitted employers to justify pay inequities between men and women.

"California has become increasingly plaintiff friendly to cases like these," Finberg said. "There have been strides taken in pay transparency. Once people start talking about the pay they're getting, the effect is that the disparities are going to be harder for companies to defend."

The cases he filed argue the defendants based women tech workers' salary on the pay they'd received in former jobs. The new law rules out of bounds company questions to new hires about their prior pay.

The Oracle suit got a boost from the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which in 2017 announced it found "systematic discrimination against women" and "gross disparities in pay" at Oracle. Jewett v. Oracle America Inc., 17civ02669 (San Mateo Super. Ct., filed June 16, 2017).

Similarly, Finberg's Google complaint pointed out the same federal office "found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce." Ellis v. Google Inc., CGC-17-561299 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 24, 2017).

A class certification hearing was set in the Oracle case for late June; the Google case remains in discovery. "Google has a leveling issue," Finberg said. "When a woman and a man apply for a software engineer position, it looks like Google channels women into lower paying jobs. That appears to be a widespread practice. And recruiters may have used prior pay scales in setting salaries."

The change in the California equal pay law, Finberg said, and the trend toward transparency both help with cases like these. "But the problem remains for employees whose pay was set before the law was enacted. Companies haven't taken steps to adjust pay levels in compliance with the law. This is a problem that will haunt us for years though I do see room for optimism."

In his Oracle complaint, Finberg put the question starkly. "As a result of its unlawful and/or unfair business practices, Oracle has reaped and continues to reap unfair and illegal profits at the expense of Plaintiffs and Class members," he wrote, calling for disgorgement of such profits and restitution with interest to his clients.

Finberg said similar suits may be in the works. "We have been called by others with equal pay claims," he said. "There's a limit to how much I can do."

-- John Roemer