The Equal Pay Act And The Civil Rights Laws

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).

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was influential in creating a progressive environment which would contribute to creating a fairer world for all. The Act was instrumental in changing the thought process of Americans at the time, and is responsible for supporting equal pay in the workplace. Gender equality pay is an issue people have been fighting over for years, but when the Equal Pay Act of 1963 passed, it certainly aided in the fight for equality for all. (Salem Press Encyclopedia)

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.

Simultaneously, the gender pay gap has financial effects not just on the women, yet their families too. Studies have shown that American families with children count on a women’s earnings as a massive part of their family’s income, and many are the head of the household. Data demonstrates that “seventy percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force, with over 75 percent employed full-time. Mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has climbed since WWII: from 32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016” (Dewolf). Now women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce, the gap in earning deciphers to $7968 per year in median earnings for a high school graduate, $11,616 for a college graduate, and $19,360 for a professional school graduate. By and large, this gap effects hundreds of millions of women and their families, and lag them back hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life.

The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings averaged in percentages. This difference in pay due to gender seems like it would be an obsolete practice in the twenty-first century, but it is real and is affecting millions of women and households in the country. In 2014, women working full time in the United States were paid 79 percent on average of what men were being paid, which is a gap of approximately 21 percent. This means that in the United States, females earned 94 cents on average to every dollar earned by males. According to one study by the Department of Labor’s Chief Economist, a typical 25-year-old woman working full time would earn $5,000 less over the course of her working career than a typical 25-year old man working in the same career. The reason why this pay gap exists does expand into other factors such as education, experience, the work being performed, qualifications, age, and ethnicity which are taken into account. The studies being conducted on the pay gap has economists verifying that discrimination is the best overall explanation and factor of the difference in pay between males and females.

Gender equality is something that has been a problem through the ages. Susan B. Anthony and many others fought for the right to vote which was granted in 1920. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law stating that no employer can discriminate based on gender. The American Association of University Women published a graph on Women’s Median Annual Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Median Annual Earnings for Full-time, Year-round Workers, 1974-2014 and it shows that in 1974, women were paid 59% of what men were paid. The graph shows the improvements over the years and that in 2014, women were paid 79% of what men were paid. The gap has not budged since 2014. The gender pay gap has improved over the years, but it will not close until new legislation passes.

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 first event I find significant is the "Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting emplyment discrimination based on race, color, religon, sex, or national origin (for companies with fifteen or more employees)." because it took a stance for not just women but also people of other races, cultures, and religons. This Act gave women the ability to get more jobs outside of the home and be more independent. Women should be able to help with the income and provide for her family just as much as a man. This Act gave women that much more of an opportunity to do so.

One problem that Americans are facing is the inequality between men and women, whether it is in everyday life or in a professional atmosphere. One step that has been taken toward equality was introduced with the Equal Pay Act of 1963, signed by President John F. Kennedy. This law was the first affecting the amount of job opportunities available for women and allowing them to work in traditionally male dominated fields. On the outside, this would sound like a solution where nothing could possibly go wrong, but it is not.

Although the Equal Pay Act has paved the way for many successful businesswomen, the majority of women still do not earn equal pay for equal work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has done

During the early history in America women were deprived of some of the many rights given to the male citizens. It has almost been a century since women were awarded the right to vote in the United States. It’s been half a century after the Equal Pay Act was established. “The Equal Pay act led to a reduction in the wage gap, but wage differences based on sex persist” (Korgen & Giraffe, 2015). Sadly, there is still a lot of prejudice towards women in the workplace. Bigotry towards women in the workplace has been dominant through the years. Many perceive women as being weak and not able to effectively provide their leadership duties in their workplaces due to their emotions (weaker sex). Positions in leadership are often given

Additionally, its passage also helped rectify the system of free market capitalism in America, through abolishing an ancient barrier to true merit based selection of employees. The immediate result of the elevating of women’s socio economic status, through offering them a higher wage, was increased participation in both the corporate world as professional employees and the world of higher education as students. In both positions, women held much greater access and leverage to the political system in America, through their active participation and influence in student demonstrations, political movements, and through unions and professional societies, respectively. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 should, in this context, be considered one of the most important pieces of legislation passed in the journey of women to a status of political, economic, and social equality with men in

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 stated that men and women in the same work place

Many people will argue against me that the wage gap no longer exists because of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, but it is far from true. Women everywhere are still suffering because of sex discrimination in the work force and it is even worse for women of color. Award winning journalist and author Sophia A. Nelson said, “In 2016, women on average were paid 80 cents for every dollar men earned. If you break the pay gap down by race and ethnicity, it’s even worse: black women were paid 63 cents; Latinas, 54 cents for every dollar white men made.” But the wage gap isn’t the only problem women are still facing.

The American Association University of Women reports that the average full time workingwoman receives just 80% the salary of a man. In 1960, women made just 60% of what men made, an upward trend that can be explained “largely by women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate”, but a trend that is not yet equal (p. 4). Hill recognizes that the choices of men and women are not always the same, whether it be in college major, or job choice, however she concludes that women experience pay gaps in virtually all levels of education and lines of work. She suggests that continuing to increase the integration of women in predominately male dominated work will help the pay gap, however, she believes that alone won’t be enough to ensure equal pay for women.