Analysis Of The Article ' Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Pay gap grows as worker age, is in public sector work, and widen among married

Luckily for women, the American Women’s rights progressed tremendously since the late 1800’s, and the turning point for females was The Equal Pay Act in 1963. Women wanted more than their primary responsibilities of taking care of the home, children, and family. Although this law contributed significant changes in the development of the women in the workforce, it did come with unethical wages.

The history of unequal pay between men and women in business started in February 1869, when a letter was sent to the editor of the New York Times questioning why female government employees were not paid the same as the male ones. “Very few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer,” the author wrote. "But it is one thing to acknowledge the right of a principle and quite another to practice it." The author also noted that the U.S. Government employed 500 women in the Treasury department, but they made less than half of what the male colleges did. Throughout that year, a law passes the House of Representatives by almost 100 votes that included a resolution to ensure equal pay to government employees. This law, however was attenuated by the time it passes the Senate in 1870. The first public demand for fair pay for woman took place in 1883 when communications across the country came to a standstill when the majority of the workers for Western Union Telegraph Company went on strike. Their reasoning was partly to ensure “equal pay for equal work” for the male and female workers of the corporation. Although the strike wasn’t ultimately successful, it was the beginning of something larger. By 1911, New York teachers were finally granted equal pay to their male colleges after a long and vigorous battle with the Board of Education. As progress is still slow, women

In 1942, the National War Labor Board urged employers to voluntarily equalize wage and salary rates for women to meet the wages of men. The Equal Pay act was signed in 1963, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who hold the same job and do the same work, but this hasn’t changed much. Two landmark court cases served to strengthen and further define the Equal Pay Act: Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. (1970), U.S. Court of Appeals for

Throughout the history of the United States, equality for all has been a highly sought-after, yet controversial aspect of American life. Whether it was the period of Native American reorganization or the destructive era of Southern slavery, it has been equality that continues to be denied to a certain group of citizens. In order to combat this, many efforts have been made to influence equality in all elements of citizen’s lives. However, in today’s society, many of these attempts have failed to be noticed, for true equality has yet to be entirely achieved. Notably, working women all over the country have been denied equal wages to that of men. Thus, condoning the use of wage discrimination against women in the workplace is unjust and inequitable because women perform many of the same jobs as men do, they are entitled to the same basic rights as the rest of society, and because laws have already been passed to illegalize wage discrimination based on gender. Both men and women in the labor force are expected of comparable tasks and performances, yet the payment that women receive as compensation remains noticeably less than that of men.

The gender pay gap is the biggest unspoken problem in America. This issue has been in the world since the dawn of time, but people only started paying attention to it in the last 80 years. In order to close this gap for good, we have to look at where it began. Stereotypes and traditions of stereotypes are the main roots of this problem; before we look at that, we must make sure we stay balanced in our fight against injustice. If we push too far, we will fall into a gender pay gap in favor of women, and I don’t want that I want fair only.

Barrett’s article articulates the workplace conditions for workingwomen, and how women fought to receive fair wage compensation. By the 1920s, we see drastic increase in the number of women in the workforce due to unregulated living wage and World War 1. At this point in time, 1 out of 4 women are in the workforce, mainly

Throughout history, discrimination of all forms has been a constant issue. These forms of discrimination include race, gender, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything else that make a person different from the next person. One major discrimination issue that is constantly being dealt with in the world takes place in the work place, equal pay. Women, who work equally hard and are equally trained and qualified as men, are not paid equally to men. This has been an ongoing problem for decades. Studies have proven that African-American women and Latina women make less than 64 cents to every dollar of their male counterparts. The Equal Pay Act of 1963, which became a law in 1963, requires that men and women who do the same job in the same organization should receive the same pay. Many exceptions to the Equal Pay Act have been made though. Some of these exceptions include having seniority, having greater a quality or quantity of production, different factors such as paying extra compensation to overnight workers or less compensation to part-time and temporary workers, and having a better or different job.

Additionally, its passage also helped rectify the system of free market capitalism in America, through abolishing an ancient barrier to true merit based selection of employees. The immediate result of the elevating of women’s socio economic status, through offering them a higher wage, was increased participation in both the corporate world as professional employees and the world of higher education as students. In both positions, women held much greater access and leverage to the political system in America, through their active participation and influence in student demonstrations, political movements, and through unions and professional societies, respectively. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 should, in this context, be considered one of the most important pieces of legislation passed in the journey of women to a status of political, economic, and social equality with men in

Government has tackled the issue of pay equity for several decades, through a string of Acts. The issue arose as part of the discussion of civil rights in the 1960s but the conversation continues today. The concept of equal pay for equal work has philosophical roots in the doctrine of equality, where all Americans are considered to be equal under the law and entitled to equal rights. The issue of equal pay became a public policy topic as a means of enforcing this equality doctrine. This paper will discuss not only the doctrine, but the history of equal pay legislation from the Civil Rights Act to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

No matter your gender, profession or where you live, you are affected by the gender pay gap. Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. (NYC Gender, 1). According to the report prepared by the Joint Economic Committee in April 2016, “The ratio of women’s to men’s median earnings – known as the “gender earnings ratio” is approximately 79 percent. That leaves a difference in earnings of 21 percent (or 21 cents on the dollar). This means that the typical woman earns less than $4 for every $5 earned by the typical man.” (Gender Pay, 2). The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal to pay a woman less that what a man would receive for the job. (Civil Rights, 1). However, we live in a world where women are still discriminated against and often paid less than men for performing the same job. As more and more women are taking on the role of “breadwinner”, the gender pay gap is an issue that needs to be resolved immediately.

Equal pay for women and even minority groups should be expected, and should not be an issue today. “In 1963, women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. In 2010, women earned 77 cents to men's dollar. That means that the wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year” (National Committee on Pay Equity). The Equal Pay Act attempted to make equal pay and get rid of discrimination in the workplace has continued to slowly progress, but it is still extremely large today. As of 2017, women earn about eighty cents for every dollar earned by men. Furthermore, the amount of time the Equal Pay Act is taking is ridiculous and should immediately change women's income in the workplace. Equality for pay doesn’t look like it will be happening very soon, “Based on its research, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimated in 2015 that women won’t

The contributing factors represent the gray area of the argument on equal pay. The first large factor that contributes to the wage gap is the time period being evaluated. The U.S. has made substantial progress within the past century and a half since the beginning of the women’s rights movement in 1848 for women’s equality and rights (“History”). Women have come a long way since being looked at as maids, property, free work/underpaid, and had little to no rights. Today, women have rightfully gained the same equal rights as everyone else. Not until the past decade or two has equal pay been a priority. With significant push in recent years including the Equal Pay Act being passed by Barack Obama, a movement towards equality in pay began. The time period being analyzed changes the view of whether or not women are being paid

surroundings, and no matter how hard they tried to escape the medical kept pushing them back down, “It is probable that, by careful selection, we might succeed in producing a race of strong-minded, masculine women…but by that time men might have become reconciled to the gentler occupations of domestic life.” (Health, disease and society in Europe 1800-1930, Brunton, 126). Even women within the United States fought against their culture and the government for equal pay. It would not be until 2009 when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and even though this bill was signed women, up to this point, made 78 cents for every dollar a man earned (Lilly Ledbetter, 1). Women became trapped within a culture that demanded unequal

Paying women lower rates for the same job based on sex became illegal on June 10, 1963 with the Equal Pay Act. One court case that helped solidify the Act was Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. in 1970. George P. Schultz took this case to court based on a complaint in 1966. At the time, he was the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor. The complaint was that Wheaton Glass Co. was paying women workers less for the same job that men were doing by changing the job titles. By renaming the job “selector-packer-stackers” to “selector-packers” Wheaton Glass Co. snuck around the Equal Pay Act. They were able to pay women less because their job was not “identical” to the men’s job. To prevent this from happening again the court ruled that jobs need to be “substantially equal” to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. It no longer matters if the jobs are not identical.