The State - News from Nov. 11, 1986

A federal judge in San Francisco declined the state’s request that she throw out a comparable-worth lawsuit accusing the state of paying women less than men for the same types of work, giving the California State Employees Assn. until next May 18 to produce enough evidence to take the case to trial. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel warned lawyers for the union that if she had to rule now, “it would sound the death knell for the case” because there is not yet enough evidence to establish a prima facie case. The lawsuit accuses the state of violating Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act by systematically paying women less for doing similar but not identical work.