For the purposes of this article:

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(1) "Employer" means the State of West Virginia;

(2) "Employee" means any person hired for permanent employment, either full or part-time, or hired for temporary employment for more than six consecutive months, by any department, agency, commission or board of the state created by an act of the Legislature, except any person employed by the university of West Virginia board of trustees, the board of directors of the state college system or by any state institution of higher education, or a member of the State Police, an employee of any Constitutional officer who is not classified under the provisions of article six, chapter twenty-nine of this code and any employee of the Legislature. The definition of "employee" does not include any patient or inmate employed in a state institution;

(3) "Wages" means all compensation for performance of service by an employee for an employer, whether paid by the employer or another person, including the cash value of all compensation paid in any medium other than cash;

(4) "Rate" with reference to wages means the basis of compensation for services by an employee for an employer and includes compensation based on the time spent in the performance of those services, or on the number of operations accomplished, or on the quantity produced or handled;

(5) "Unpaid wages" means the difference between the wages actually paid to an employee and the wages required to be paid to an employee pursuant to section three of this article;

(6) "Work of comparable character" means work that may be dissimilar, but whose requirements are comparable or equivalent when viewed as a composite of levels of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions; and

(7) "Wage gap" means the difference between the median annual earnings of men and women.