Comparing California, Massachusetts, And New York 's Pay Equity Statutes Essay

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

In American society today there is an imbalance in the gender income gap between men and women in the work force. Many factors such as discrimination, productivity, educational background and disproportional hours worked contribute to this ongoing challenge. While many are skeptical, others remain to have strong beliefs that women and men are treated equally. In most professions according to Glynn “women only earn seventy seven cents for every dollar earned by men” (2014). Although, the seventy seven cents figure does not accurately reflect gender discrimination, it does capture some discrimination,

Equal pay is a problem on a global scale. Over 145 countries have a documented pay wage gap (Werft). One would hope the United States would have the smallest wage gap, but in 2016, the United States was in only 45th place in the smallest wage gap (“Rankings”). In fact, most women in the United States only make $0.77 compared to a whole dollar they should earn. The state with the worst wage gap is Louisiana, with only, on average $0.69 for every man’s dollar (“Rankings”). One in three of the 15.2 million families headed by women have fallen below the poverty line, leaving their children to suffer in poverty

After years of Civil Rights Movements and Pay Equity Acts, as of 2014, women still only make 79 cents to a man 's every dollar. Although the wage gap has shrunk since the 1970’s, progress has recently stalled and chances of it vanishing on its own is unlikely. The gains that American women have made towards labor market experience and skills is tremendous. In fact, women account for 47% of labor workforce and 49.3% of American jobs. But despite of women’s strides, a gender pay gap still exists. Experts suggest that it will take 100 years to close the gap at the rate employers and legislators are working to create solutions. But by allowing women to work in higher paying positions and by proposing and updating pay equity laws, the gender gap can finally be diminished.

According to statistics, there are disparities with pay in the workplace. Men are paid more in wages, comprehensive packages, and benefits than women who performed the same job responsibilities and roles in the workplace. The big question is why are women being unvalued? Since, this is a common practice in the workplace, is this fair to both genders and is this the most favorable outcome for the greatest number affected by this business practice? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to eliminate this type of discrimination based on sex with paying wages to employees, in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which pays, wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

Women continue to face disadvantages in the workplace in regards to not receiving equal pay as well. There are many instances where women have the same or more qualifications to do a job than their male counterparts but do not receive the same pay. This difference in pay is not only related to gender differences but also racial differences. Women employees of different racial backgrounds tend to earn less money than their white female and male counterparts. Many women of color often face discrimination when applying to jobs and are overlooked for a position despite having the qualifications to do the work. When they are hired to these occupations they are not receiving the same pay as their white female counterparts. This double bind that minority women face within the work place continues to lead to economic hardships. Regarding women in the workplace in general, due to society’s high regard for men they are often not promoted to positions of authority or receive equal pay because people assume that women are inferior workers. (Buchanan, p205-207)

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.

The Equal Pay Act set in the United States in 1963 is a labor law removes the wage inequality between men and women. This was a law that was specifically designed so that everyone is required to be paid the same amount. If a man and a woman are both working the same job title in the same work place there should not be any difference in the amount of pay received. The creation of this law was much more important than many people realized, because women were completing the same jobs but offered less money because of their gender and not quality of their work.The sole purpose of the equal pay is give women the same ability to make a living as a male, which closes the gender pay gap and keeps women for being paid 78 cents on a dollar. This pay act helps hold the employer accountable for making sure no one is not being compensated for things in their job description. In this paper I will speaking about The EEOC Sues Checkers and the Phillips V. Marietta Corp which are two specific cases that shows how people have been discriminated against because of their gender, this highlights the importance of The Equal Pay Act and what it actually stands for.

All 13 counties from Ohio reported employment gains from March 2014 to March 2015. While employment is thankfully rising, the wage gap isn’t budging. Gender wage gap in Ohio has been consistently 22 cents less than a dollar for a while now. The Pay Equity Act was passed in 1963 and we have barely budged since. The act hasn’t been updated since it was passed, in 1963. With the cost of living and needs higher now, women deserve to be getting the same amount of money as men do. It is very traditional to think of women as a lesser counterpart. A great solution to this issue would be to start a petition to send to Congress about reforming the 1963 Pay Equity Act, and making a facebook page to inform the public of this unfairness occurring in the state and could. Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, society has constantly put men 's wage above women 's. It is not that women are lesser in the workplace, it is what has always been, it 's a very traditional approach. Contributing factors include occupational discrimination, race, religion, and obviously, gender. These are not a big problem in Licking County, but the wage gap is still an issue in Ohio. The 1963 Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal pay for equal work, but the wage gap is still a considerable amount more than 50 years since the passage of the act and the gap hasn 't narrowed fast enough.

Being an interagency task force, the Equal Pay Task Force has worked closely together to build a strong foundation in order to ensure long-term success in ending pay discrimination. In the spring of 2010 the EEOC and the DOJ created a “pilot project” in which they efficiently investigated and consulted over 125 cases of pay discrimination (pg7). This interagency cooperation has trained over 2000 enforcement personnel, as well as providing online training to the various departments on how to address and handle pay discrimination more effectively. To ensure future success this task force has also worked with academic experts to use the best means of data gathering, doing so will give the Task Force transparent information to investigate future cases (pg8).

An amendment to California Labor Code § 1197.5 now adds the language "substantially similar work” to the prohibition against an employer from paying an employee at wage rates less than the rates paid to employees of the opposite sex. SB 358 does not require such “substantially similar work” to be “in the same establishment” of the employer as previously required by Section 1197.5.

Abigail Adams was one of the first of many women to stand up and fight for what she believed in - women’s rights. She believed every woman deserves the chance to serve their families and country just like the men do. Although women have more rights in the United States now more than ever, we seem to still have problems with discrimination wherever we go. Some still think women are lacking equal rights to men, because women are still getting treated differently in the workforce, infantry, and everyday life in general. Los Angeles Times recently published the article “Equal Pay for Women Gets a Boost” by Patrick McGreevy and Chris Megerian - telling a story about a women named Aileen Rizo, whom is a math consultant for the Fresno County Office, who claims that her male co worker make twelve thousand dollars more a year that she does.

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

The pay gap between genders exhibits sexism in America yet some researchers are in denial. Warren Farrell, expert on gender issues within legislation and former board member of National Organization for Women, claims otherwise. In his book Why Men Earn More, he attributes difference in wages to females choosing human resources jobs, which pay less, and not choosing harsher jobs that pay more (Farrell). His overall point is that men sacrifice more thus companies pay more for those sacrifices. His argument only compares the genders when different job requirements alter wages, but does not mention wages of identical jobs.

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).