Does the EPA protect employees who are paid less money for positions requiring more skill, effort, or responsibility than those held by employees of the opposite sex?

question presented is: (1) Does the EPA protect employees who are paid less money for positions requiring more skill, effort, or responsibility than those held by employees of the opposite sex—a question the Federal Regulations and other Circuits have answered affirmatively, but the Fifth Circuit answered negatively here? ii Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer “to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s ... sex[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). The Act does not set out any specific evidentiary burdens that must be met, id., and this Court has made clear that Title VII protects employees in unique positions within an organization. Washington Cnty. v. Gunther, 452 U.S. 161, 178-179 (1981). The Fifth Circuit nevertheless found Petitioners could not establish a prima facie Title VII pay-discrimination case because, as the only general counsel and staff attorney at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, they could not satisfy the Fifth Circuit’s requirement of a “nearly identical” comparator. The second question presented is: (2) Does the Fifth Circuit’s requirement of a “nearly identical” comparator to establish a prima facie pay-discrimination case improperly circumscribe Title VII’s plain language and conflict with the holdings of this Court and other Circuits imposing no comparator requirement at all, much less a “nearly identical” one? ili PARTIES TO PROCEEDINGS BELOW Petitioners are Katherine Muslow and Meredith Cunningham, who were in the Fifth Circuit. Respondents are Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Board of Supervisors; and Larry Hollier. Other in the Fifth Circuit were Thomas Skinner, John Harman, and Carlton Jones III (also known as Trey Jones).