California Fair Pay Act : Wage Discrimination And Broader Prohibition Of Gender Wage

equal pay for work of equal value or pay equity must be guaranteed, requiring that women’s work

11. Federal legislation has been enacted to protect workers against wage discrimination (e.g., Equal Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Acts of 1964and 1991, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). These laws prohibit paying male employees more than female employees unless the wage difference is justified on the basis of:

An important federal employment law that all employees and employers should be aware of is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. As conversed in week nine of class discussion and video lecture, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 ends wage disparity based on sex. The main goal of this act was to ban discrimination in wages, benefits, and pensions based the gender of an employee in any place of employment. Women traditionally earned less than men for doing similar work. The United States has had a long history of knowledge of unequal pay between men and women, but it was not until around World War II that the problem arose and women started fighting for their rights on this issue. Women have tried passing several bills to help close this pay gap throughout the 1950’s, but ended up in failure.

Under new legislations, both New York and California are willing to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. Although this will be a slow process, as an increase immediately will put an economic risk on business, especially for small business, this increase in minimum wage will be beneficiary and advantageous for individuals with low pay and with those who have families.

When you picture a minimum wage worker, who do you picture? Do you see a sixteen year old, a middle-aged mother, a college graduate, or even a senior citizen worker? In September of 2013, California governor Jerry Brown signed a new bill into act that would cause the California minimum wage to rise from the current $8.00 and hour to $10.00 and hour in increments over the next three years. The minimum wage rate will go up in two separate $1.00 boosts. The first will change the rate from $8.00 to $9.00 in July of 2014, and the second increase, to $10.00, in January 2016. In this paper, I will discuss, compare, and weigh the pros and cons of the minimum wage increase in California.

California’s recently amended statute requires that employees filing wage discrimination claims show that they and their counterparts of the opposite sex perform “substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, . . . under similar working conditions.” Systems based on seniority, merit, measures of earnings based on production quantity or quality, or “a bona fide factor other than sex” (such as “education, training, or experience”) are legal bases under the California law upon which to differentiate among employee wages. A factor other than sex cannot be “based on or derived from” employees’ sexes, must be

Compensation is made up of two primary areas. Those areas are salary administration and benefits. In many companies, payroll is a role within the accounting department. In other companies, payroll is positioned in compensation. Currently, Motors and More consist of one female supervisor and four male managers. Although, Motors and More does not have an issue with providing equal pay, we will make sure the company pays every employee sufficiently. “The 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.” (Eeoc.gov, 2015)

The CFPA increases the employer's burden of proof. § 1197.5 automatically exempted certain gender wage differentials related to payments based on a seniority system, a merit system, quantity or quality of production, or any bona fide factor other than sex. The ambiguously general “any bona fide factor other than sex” defense allowed employers to argue after-the-fact and irrelevant non-sex-based factors to rationalize probable illegal pay

Despite the seemingly separate understanding of these dimensions, the most significant aspect is the interaction between all four. This is exhibited through a dissection of the Fair Pay Act’s most prominent provisions. Because this is a statewide initiative, the Act’s domain is that of the duty of the legislative branch of the state of California in conjunction with Governor Brown. Since women are, at least, residents of the state and because they are contributing to the overall economy of the state, these ruling bodies must step in to create a policy that could help diminish pay disparity. In fact, power is extended to the government to protect citizens in cases of injustice (Rosenthal and

It revises the exception to the prohibition for a wage rate differential based on any other factor other than sex, limits such factors to bona fide factors, such as education, training, or experience. Additionally, it states that the bona fide factor defense shall apply only if the employer demonstrates that such factor: (1) is not based upon or derived from a sex-based differential in compensation, (2) is job-related with respect to the position in question, and (3) is consistent with business necessity. (Library of Congress, 2012)

Equal Pay Provisions: An amendment to the FLSA called the Equal Pay Act of the FLSA prohibits sex-based wage differentials between men and women employed in the same field who performs careers that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility that are performed under similar working conditions.

California first set a minimum wage in 1916, 22 years before the federal government established a national one. The state 's minimum has gone up 25 times since then, rising to $8 in January 2008. On Thursday, the Legislature was expected to give final approval to a revised bill by Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) that would raise the minimum to $9 in July 2014 and $10 in January 2016. The original version of the bill would have increased the minimum more gradually, reaching $9.25 in 2016, but with automatic cost-of-living increases in later years.

The Equal Pay Case of 1972

Despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act has been law since 1963, many problems inevitably arise in the administration of equal pay laws (Fisher). It has been estimated that at this current slow rate of progression in closing the gender pay gap it will be 2068 by the time men and women’s wages are equalized. It is clear that the business case, as well as the legislative case, has a significant role to play (Commission Policy Report).

California is set to raise the minimum wage to $15 by the year 2022. This increase will benefit millions of California residents by boosting their wages. The problem with this increase is that the majority of California’s small businesses will be negatively affected. Many employees will face layoffs or hour reductions. (John Bacon).