Issue of Equal Pay

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation that resulted from a unique combination of public pressure, historical events, previous failed legislation, and a large-scale social movement. Many regard the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the most successful civil rights legislation in history. There is no doubt that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the way the society addressed race and gender, but it in the context of current events resulting in racial tension, it is worth examining the true impact of the legislation and how society can continue to move forward in matters of civil equality. This paper will provide an overview of the historical context of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and examine the legislation’s impact on society

During the 1960s, a number of movements of oppressed or underrepresented groups in American society emerged protesting the discrimination they experienced. The democratic ideals they advocated for were not limited to more voting rights as underrepresented minorities, but also included social and economic justice so they could serve as fully functional members of society. In doing so, the leaders of each movement tackled the advocation of their rights in varying manners, based largely on their beliefs and the objectives of the movement they were involved with. Some people believe each all protest movements of the 1960s sought to redefine American democracy to similar or identical levels. However, both ethnic minority groups and women sought

“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.

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 1960s in America brought a host of movements that pushed for equality, power, and change. Each movement helped to shape and effect the other

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.

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).

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.

Wage discrimination is embedded in our legal system. The ongoing battle for equal pay for women dates back to the Civil War. Throughout history, men seemed as the ideal-type of employers. Men were primary the breadwinners, and women who worked at the time only pinch in money oppose to having a stable salary equivalent to their male counterparts. The job roles such as nurses, teacher, and retail sales clerk became a “traditional female” occupations. In “Here’s the History of the Battle for Equal Pay for American Women,” Charlotte Alter points out a letter sent to the editor of the New York Times on February 1869. In this letter, the writer questioned why female government officials did not have similar pay to their male colleagues: ‘Very few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer.’ Even in the late 19th century in which men had far more opportunities than women, people question the inequality in regards of the workplace. The

In the 2009 article of Modern Casting titled “Obama Signs Fair-Pay Act”, a report is given about President Obama signing his first bill into law showing his dedication to the labor agenda. It was called the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, with its primary purpose being to increase the time restrictions previously set forth for employees bringing equal pay claims against their employers. Legislated in 1963, The Equal Pay Act was put in place to decrease the pay gap between males and females. The act prohibits gender-based pay discrimination by requiring organizations to pay men and women doing the same job the same rate of pay (Gilley, 2009). But this was not limited to wages alone, also included in the Equal Pay Act are all associated pay benefits such as insurances, retirement plans, severance pay, stock options and more.

In this report, I will explore the rationale, significance, and potency of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by carefully analyzing its role from creation to passage throughout history, its strengths towards the economy and weaknesses to the public, the effectiveness of its implementation process, and its impact on business and society in the perspective of material covered throughout the ethics and law course. The advancement of the Equal Pay Act is “critically important because employment is essential to the economic well-being and dignity of employees and their families” (Jones, 2014, 18).

In January 2009, President Barack Obama signed The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act alongside Lilly Ledbetter, an equal pay activist. This Act allowed women and men to receive the same pay regardless of any reasoning. In his speech, President Obama personally thanked Ledbetter for her effort on being an advocate for the equality of American workers, especially women (Obama). Eight years in and significant parts of the population are still frustrated over uneven pays in the United States and around the world.

The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to

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).