Equal Pay In California

Even though there is an Elimination Act of all forms of discrimination against women in 1979 the United States still continue to bridge a gap in wages. When you look at the wage gap you can clearly see the difference in gender and it is much worse for people of color. The wage gap is not just a gender issue it also affects racial minorities. Asian American women experience the smallest gender pay gap. The Hispanic and Latina women had the largest gap with 54 percent of what the white men were paid in 2013. The gender pay gap for American Indian and Alaska Native women has went down to 60 and 59 percent in 2013. As for African American women they are paid 64 percent of what white men were paid in 2013 and white women were paid 78 percent of what white men were paid ( Catherine, H). Over the years the wage gap is in fact improving but only by a small percentage. In 2012 the wage gap was 77% and in 2013 the

The gender wage gap in America is a social problem that has existed since women entered the workforce. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, for every dollar earned by a man, a woman made 78.3 cents in 2013 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Data from 1983 to 1998 and concluded that women workers in their prime earning years make 38% of what men make. During the 15-year period, an average prime-age working woman earned only $273,592 compared with $722,693 earned by the average working man in 1999 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). The wage gap affects women of color in a more profound way that it does non-hispanic white women. Hispanic women are making 53%, African American women are making 64%, and Asian American women are making 87% of white men’s earnings each year (AAUW, 2013).

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.

“I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women.” (Susan B. Anthony) Susan B. Anthony said this over a hundred years ago, when the woman’s suffrage movement was just beginning in the United States. Even after all this time, the gender wage gap is a still hot topic in the United States today. Popular stars and politicians including Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence, and Hillary Clinton all have something to say about it. There is even a section of thewhitehouse.gov dedicated to discussing the gender wage gap which is the comparison of women 's wages to men’s wages in the United States (“Equal Pay”). It is pretty common knowledge in the United States that women make 78 cents to a man’s dollar. However, it is not common knowledge that this is only comparing white women to white men (“The Simple Truth”). Women of color make even less than that, Latinas making the least, only 54 cents to a white man’s dollar. The Latina wage gap is largely ignored by the media because of the complicated politics of racial and gender based discrimination.

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.

Women have made significant strides in society, proving themselves to be as capable as men in the workforce. However, while women are making equal contributions, men and women are not earning equal wages. Even though the Equal Pay Act was established in 1963, women continue to earn lower wages than men over half a century later. This inequality not only affects women as individuals but has a detrimental effect on the national economy. The gender wage gap in the United States should end because it is unjust; correcting it would have social and economic benefits for the U.S.

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).

Section 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. SB 358 amends Section 1197.5 to require that an employer must now affirmatively demonstrate these differentials, and further that each underlying factor relied upon is applied reasonably, together accounting for the entire wage differential.

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.

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.

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

The gender pay gap has been an issue forever. Wage discrimination exists when workers are equally qualified and perform the same work but one group of workers is paid more than another. “The American Association University of Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman)1. The pay gap is even greater for African-American and Latina women. African-American women earning 64 cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man. Of course it’s a racial issue because the caucasians have always been the superior race. African American and Hispanic women are significantly less likely to graduate from high school or to get a bachelor’s degree than white

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

Some organizations are unwilling to show their reward systems and pay policies (Lawler, 1995). Many Human Resources professionals believe gender pay gaps to be resolvable through the monitoring of pay levels and communication (Report on Salary Surveys).Greater pay transparency has been a great benefit to the board, employees and managers as they now know what is happening across the business and they are able to confidently justify their actions (Commission Policy Report).All market-related supplements are recorded and reviewed separately from basic salary to ensure openness and transparency. Regular research market rates within the various labor markets in which they operate is undertaken improving transparency would also help to improve talent development, as employees would be able to see what they could earn if they wanted to move to another division and upgrade their skill set. (Commission Policy Report).