Paycheck Fairness Essay

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

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

Imagine what an extra 20%, or more, in your paycheck could do for you. Maybe it would be the difference between just scraping by and having a little discretionary income. Now, imagine being paid based on your own merit, and not some sliding scale which has historically favored men as the breadwinners of the family. Unfortunately, for most women, equal pay is still a dream. Today, as throughout history, there exists a gender pay gap where women are paid $0.79 to every dollar a man makes. Minority women make even less. Women, of course, have always known this gap exists, but they have had little power to change it.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is in place to make it so men and women are paid the same if they are performing the same jobs. It gives equality in the workplace between men and women.

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:

Differences in the employees’ pay and compensation can be a form of discrimination depending on whether it is guided by job position, experience, and qualification of the employee or not. Occupation differentiation and differentials in earnings is not necessarily a form of employment discrimination. However, the case in ABC Corporation which had led to disparate treatment of employees in terms of payment had created a form of unintended discrimination and trying to correct it cannot raise ethical conflicts between the employees (Clarkson, Miller & Cross,). Ethics are based on the principles of doing right or wrong, god or bad in a certain situation. In this case, ABC Corporation is trying to honor its moral obligation by doing what is right-balancing the pay of its work to solve differences in their pay. This does

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.

The current situation with equal pay in America is that women of every race is paid less than men, at every education level. This amendment is needed so that women can take care of their families better, it's a global problem, equal pay for women can help end poverty, and to help better retirement. This amendment is meant to address the problems we have with equal pay around America.

On June 10, 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act this law made it illegal to pay women lower wage rates for the same job strictly based on their sex. Before that, separate job listings for men and women advertised in newspapers with different pay scales for the same jobs with the highest-level jobs advertising for men only. Subsequently, two important court cases, Schultz vs. Wheaton Glass (1970) which ruled jobs only need to be substantially equal and not identical to be protected under the Equal Pay Act and Corning Glass Works vs. Brennan (1974) that determined women could not be paid less simply because they would work at a lower pay rate than men helped to strengthen and further define the Equal Pay Act (Rowen). Although the Equal Pay Act and the civil rights laws that followed helped change the workplace and began to combat wage inequality these laws have not closed the persistent gap between women’s and men’s wages.

This law makes it illegal to pay different wages to men and women if they perform equal work in the same workplace. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

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

”My own mother always taught me that fairness was a family value - I think equal pay is about fairness for everyone” (Honda). For years women and men alike have been fighting for equal rights. Lately in society, the issue of equal pay has gained popularity, and rightly so. For every 41-44 hours of work a week, women only earn 84.6% of what their men coworkers earn for the same amount of work. My family experienced this firsthand when my mother worked at Phoenix Technologies as a Purchasing Agent. She worked 50-60 hours a week and earned an estimate of 20% less than the men working the same

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).

The general principal behind this act is to ensure employees welfare and quality of life is safeguarded. Employees should therefore welcome and support any effort by the organization to adhere to its recommendation. Furthermore, adhering to this law ensures compensation discrimination is avoided. This is especially true considering FLSA was amended by the Equal Pay Act (EPA) in 1963. As a result, employers are restricted from paying unequal salary based on ones gender. Employees should be compensated equally provided they perform similar jobs, encompassing similar responsibilities and under same conditions (Ross, 2011).

Treating employees fairly in relations to pay is important for both employee and employer. The Equal Pay Act 1970 was introduced to ensure that women and men are paid the same for the same role. Organisations that actively treat all employees the same in relation to pay promote retention of employees. Employees won’t be underpaid for the work they do in relation to a colleague in a similar role, employees won’t feel discriminated against thus performance of work isn’t effected. The