By Debra Ellwood Meppen and Laurie DeYoung (April 24, 2018, 11:45 AM EDT) -- Women have been fighting for equal pay for nearly a half century. In September 2017, three former female employees sued Google Inc. seeking class certification for Google's alleged violation of California's Equal Pay Act, codified in California Labor Code Section 1197.5. The California Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for employees who perform "substantially similar work" when viewed as a composite of skill, effort and responsibility. The 2016 amendment to the act strictly prohibits employers from relying on the employee's prior salary to justify a sex-based difference in salary. In fact, in 2018 California outlawed employers from asking about job applicants' former salaries under any circumstances. The plaintiffs in Kelly Ellis v. Google accuse Google of intentional and systematic violation of the Equal Pay Act because of a company-wide policy of assigning female employees to jobs within Google based on stereotypes, and then handing women a lower starting salary than men upon their hire....