Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Equal Pay Act of 1963The Equal Pay Act of 1963 makes it illegal for private employers to have different rates of pay for women and men doing the same work. It was the first federal law to address sex discrimination. In 1992, women filed 1,186 wage discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; in 2003, women filed 1,026 charges; and in 2010, 1,044.
Congresswoman Mary Norton (D-NJ) introduced an equal pay for comparable work bill in 1945, and Congresswomen Frances P. Bolton (R-OH) introduced different versions in 1954. Although President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the concept, opponents insisted that comparable work could not be defined. Congresswoman Katharine St. George (R-NY) overcame the objection in 1962 when she proposed equal pay for equal work, an approach that Congresswoman Edith Green (D-OR) drafted into a bill and introduced.
Support for equal pay legislation also came from Women's Bureau director Esther Peterson, who made passing it a priority and hired a lobbyist to work with members of Congress on the measure. The measure received further support in 1962, when the President's Commission on the Status of Women endorsed equal pay at its first meeting and commission chair Eleanor Roosevelt declared her support for it at a press conference. The commission's research revealed that in the period from 1955 to 1960, women earned less than two-thirds of what men earned.
When the House debated the bill, St. George said that opposing it “would be like being against motherhood.” The Chamber of Commerce of the United States was the bill's most visible opponent. It was supported by the American Association of University Women, Business and Professional Women/USA, the National Consumers League, the National Woman's Party, the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Kennedy administration. The bill passed the U.S. House and Senate in 1962 but in different forms, and it ultimately died. Green sponsored the bill again in 1963, when it passed.
Perspectives
Selling Women Short
Rocked by a flurry of high-profile sex discrimination lawsuits in the 1990s, Wall Street was supposed to have cleaned up its act. It hasn't. Selling Women Short is a powerful new indictment of how America's financial capital has swept enduring discriminatory practices under the rug. Wall Street is supposed to be a citadel of pure economics, paying for performance and evaluating performance objectively. People with similar qualifications and performance should receive similar pay, regardless of gender. They don't. Comparing the experiences of men and women who began their careers on Wall Street in the late 1990s, Louise Roth finds not only that women earn an average of 29 percent less but also that they are shunted into less lucrative career paths, are not promoted, and are denied the best clients. Selling Women Short reveals the subtle structural discrimination that occurs when the unconscious biases of managers, coworkers, and clients influence performance evaluations, work distribution, and pay. In their own words, Wall Street workers describe how factors such as the preference to associate with those of the same gender contribute to systematic inequality. Revealing how the very systems that Wall Street established ostensibly to combat discrimination promote inequality, Selling Women Short closes with Roth's frank advice on how to tackle the problem, from introducing more tangible performance criteria to curbing gender-stereotypical client entertaining activities. Above all, firms could stop pretending that market forces lead to fair and unbiased outcomes. They don't.
The Male-Female Wage Gap
Although women continue to often earn less than men, the wage gap has gradually narrowed. Today, women with a strong attachment to the labour market typically earn 72-77 cents for every dollar earned by men. Studies have identified factors that contribute to the pay disparity, but they have been unable to fully justify its existence. The unexplained portion of the wage differential is often attributed entirely to discrimination (ie: unequal rewards for equal labour market qualifications), but it also represents omitted variables and measurements error. Some believe that as women increasingly become like men in terms of the extent and nature of their participation in the paid labour force, women's earnings will further approach those of men. equity beyond current anti-discrimination measures (i.e., Equal Pay Act of 1963, EPA, which amends the Fair Labour Standards Act, FLSA; Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; and E.O. 11246). Others believe that obstacles in the labour market continue to hamper women's progress, particularly their concentration in fairly few occupations and the undervaluing of female-dominated jobs. In the 1980's this perspective led to lawsuits that brought largely unsuccessful comparable worth claims under Title VII (ie: allowing a job evaluation's finding of unequal pay for equally rated female- and male-dominated jobs within a firm as proof of wage discrimination) and to bills that proposed conducting pay equity studies of the federal job classification system. This book reviews the issue in all its complexities.
Wage Gap
The wage gap controversy is far from being put to rest. Defenders of markets have long argued that the concept of "equal pay" is a myth; Individuals are responsible for negotiating their own salaries, and if they fail to negotiate well they only have themselves to blame. Critics of this view have replied that negotiation is not always an option; that there is built in bias that cannot be overcome by sheer determination. This anthology provides a collection of essays that present differing viewpoints. Taken together, they offer a diverse array of views on the wage gap. A question-and-response format prompts readers to examine complex topics from multiple angles. Students are encouraged to see the validity of divergent opinions, so that they may understand issues inclusively. Fact boxes are included to summarize important information for researchers.
Online Resources
- 5 Facts About the State of the Gender Pay GapMarch 24 is Equal Pay Day, a symbolic day that represents the number of extra days women, on average, must work to earn what men, on average, earned the year before. And for mothers and many women of color, this date falls much later in the year.
Many systemic issues are at the root of lower wages for working women – not just gender discrimination, but also racial discrimination, the devaluation of “women’s” work, the absence of supports for essential family care and more. Though these issues have been longstanding labor market structures, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed their devastating consequences – and the urgent need for better solutions that support all working women. - Equal Pay/Compensation DiscriminationThe Equal Pay Act requires that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. Job content (not job titles) determines whether jobs are substantially equal. All forms of pay are covered by this law, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, profit sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses, and benefits. If there is an inequality in wages between men and women, employers may not reduce the wages of either sex to equalize their pay.
- Equal Pay for Equal WorkThe Equal Pay Act of 1963, amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, protects against wage discrimination based on sex.1 The Equal Pay Act (EPA) protects both men and women.
All forms of compensation are covered, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for travel expenses, and benefits. If there is an inequality in wages between men and women who perform substantially equal jobs, employers must raise wages to equalize pay but may not reduce the wages of other individuals.
Streaming Media
- Why Can't a Woman Earn as Much as a Man?In terms of lifetime earning power, most women earn far less than their male colleagues do. What lies at the root of the pay gap? The answer is neither simple nor definitive, as this program reveals. Research leads hosts Sophie Raworth and Justin Rowlatt—each a parent with young daughters—on a not-so-merry chase to see what the future may hold for their children. Stops along the way include a meeting regarding a class action suit brought by women for lost wages due to unfair salary practices; a group job interview that prompts discussion of a double standard regarding assertiveness in women and men; same-sex and coeducational schools, to see how gender stereotyping influences career choice; and a medical facility where a brain activity assessment is used to seek insights into potential physiological differences in how women and men process tasks. Also addressed is the question of whether so-called typical female qualities—empathy and openness, to name two—align women with work that is less valued, monetarily speaking, by the job market. A BBC Production. A part of the series The Trouble with Working Women: An Inquiry into Inequality Between the Sexes.