Discussion Question Number One
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009 changes the statute of limitations for a claim under Title VII and the EPA for an unjustified pay difference between male and female. The Act resets the statute every time a person received an unequal pay check, but permits recovery for all past unequal pay received by the claimant going back two years. Opponents of the law argue that this creates a huge potential liability for an employer for actions for back pay. What are the pros and cons of this law? State reasons for the pros and cons.
This was interesting to learn. Here is some background I found about this act. Lilly Ledbetter was one of the few female supervisors at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama, and worked there for close to two decades. She faced sexual harassment at the plant and was told by her boss that he didn’t think a woman should be working there. Her co-workers bragged about their overtime pay, but Goodyear did not allow its
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And the gap is even worse for women of color – African American women earn only 64 cents and Latina women earn only 55 cents for each dollar earned by males. NWLC (2013).
Pros of this are as follows:
The first pro is it will give employers a strong incentive to eliminate any discriminatory compensation practices. A second pro is the act enables individuals to challenge continuing pay discrimination. A third pro is employees will continue to have every incentive to challenge compensation discrimination claims. NWLC (2013).
The reason these are pros, is that they are realistic and if understood can change way employers conduct themselves when it comes to employees and equality. This also allows employees to feel empowered to take action without intimidation. I am pretty sure there are many who don't speak up. However, if more keep doing it, eqaulity will come that much faster.
Cons of this are as
Even though that was twelve years ago, there still is gender inequality regarding the gender pay gap. Women today are still not making as much as men. Today, on average a woman earns 78 cents per dollar earned by a man. (O’Brien, 2015).
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).
Errin Haines Whack notes in an article published in the Associated Press that there is more than just one wage gap. The racial wage gap is another issue that is arguably larger than the wage gap between men and women. Whack states that this wage gap – between African Americans and White Americans is larger than it was in the 1980’s in America. The main reason for this great divide; economic discrimination. More importantly, black women are seeing the lowest wages compared to white men and women as well as black men. Specifically, Whack mentioned the differences of wages, using the white man as an anchor for the year of 2015. A black man with an identical background to the white man earns 22 cents for every dollar of the anchor. Compared to the black woman who only earns 11 cents less than a white woman, but still makes 34 cents less than a white man’s dollar. Whack further cites that one way to decrease the gap involved attaining higher education.
“Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn, with women of color at an even greater disadvantage with 64 cents on the dollar for African American women and 56 cents for Hispanic women.” — White House Statement of Administration Policy on Paycheck Fairness Act, June 4. [2]
This case analysis will covers the impact of the McKennon V. Nashville Banner Publishing Co Supreme Court Of The United States Decision in any legal dispute regulated by Age Discrimination In Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) and others regulation that covers the elimination of discrimination in the workplace, the contribution to payback calculation procedure in this type of legal suit, as well as impact in the workplace environment. The Court held in McKennon established that the employer is
Women’s Civil Rights has always been an issue around the world. During World War II, women began working while the men were away at war. Once the men came back, the pay wage began between men and women. According to researchers, Beth Rowen and Borgna Brunner, between 1950 and 1960, women who had worked full-time jobs only earned around 60 cents to every dollar that their male counterparts earned. It was not until June 10, 1963 that the Equal Pay Act was passed by President Kennedy making it illegal for employers to pay women less than men in the same job title. In order to further progress of pay equity, Rosa Cho from Re:Gender.org, also found that President Kennedy proposed a Civil Rights Act to prohibit
Two Supreme Court cases that deal with compensation discrimination are Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. and Corning Glass Works v. Brennan. Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. was a Supreme Court case that was decided in 1970 that protected women from being paid less due to a different job title. It states that the jobs need to “substantially equal” not “identical” to be protected by the Equal Pay Act (“The Equal Pay Act”). Corning Glass Works v. Brennan was a Supreme Court case that protected women from getting paid less due to the “going market price” because “men would not work at lower rates paid women” (“The Equal Pay Act”). These Supreme Court Cases helped reinforce the Equal Pay Act, therefore helping to extinguish the Pay
6. Briefly explain the benefits of making sure equality and diversity procedures are followed in a business environment. Your answer should include one benefit for the employer, one benefit for the employee and one benefit for the overall organisation.
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.
To protect employees and employers; ensuring that their needs and rights, within the work place, are covered. They make sure everyone is treated equally and fairly, avoiding the risk of discrimination, both direct and indirect. This means making sure that everyone is given the same opportunities and freedom to develop within their work regardless of their race, sex and ability.
A federal law that let female federal workers equal pay and equal work is passed. Even though it was passed, it was leaving out majority of female workers who work for private corporations and or state and local governments until the adoption of the Equal Pay Act in 1963. Many holes where made and sealed but in
The inequality of pay between a man and a woman grows when the woman's race is taken into consideration, statistically, white women earn seventy-eight cents, African-American women earn sixty-four cents and Latina women earn fifty-six cents for every dollar earned by a white man as stated on www. whitehouse.gov. This significant wage gap is not just a bunch of numbers -- it has real life consequences that affect real life women: women with growing children to feed, women of color, disabled women, aging women longing retirement, and your own
The Civil Rights act of 1964 along with Title VII gives employees the option to sue business owners based on color, race, sexual orientation, and religion. This act, rules on the fact, that individuals can take action if a discrimination or harassment issues happens at the employer’s workplace. It expands Civil Rights statues to provide more protection against people who are victimized due to discrimination. It sets the guidelines for job related issues due to disparate impact or treatment issues. However, this act does not assure that everyone who faces discrimination will be employed because frankly he is a minority. If it is felt that there is a possibility of
Affirmative action has helped the income, promotion and labor force participation rates of both women and minorities. For example, between 1982 and 1995, the percentage of female managers and professionals in the U.S. rose from 40.5 to 48.0 percent; blacks from 5.5 to 7.5 percent, and Hispanics from 5.2 to 7.6 percent. By comparison, these groups form 51.2 percent, 12.6 percent, and 10.2 percent of the population, respectively. Progress has been steady, but still incomplete.
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).