The Importance Of Equal Pay For Women

According to statistics, there are disparities with pay in the workplace. Men are paid more in wages, comprehensive packages, and benefits than women who performed the same job responsibilities and roles in the workplace. The big question is why are women being unvalued? Since, this is a common practice in the workplace, is this fair to both genders and is this the most favorable outcome for the greatest number affected by this business practice? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to eliminate this type of discrimination based on sex with paying wages to employees, in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which pays, wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

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)

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.

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 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.

“Temporarily at least, the war caused a greater change in women's economic status and outlook than a prior half century of reform and rhetoric had been able to achieve.” ”The Federal government encouraged housewives to join the workforce as a patriotic duty.” Once they needed the women to work for America,it was promoted through various forms of propaganda that taking on the male's role was the best thing to do. “Immediately after the war, the percentage of women who worked fell as factories converted to peacetime production and refused to rehire women.” It was expected that the women were going to keep their jobs, even when their men had come home, but instead the women were fired in order for men to be hired.

The history of unequal pay between men and women in business started in February 1869, when a letter was sent to the editor of the New York Times questioning why female government employees were not paid the same as the male ones. “Very few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer,” the author wrote. "But it is one thing to acknowledge the right of a principle and quite another to practice it." The author also noted that the U.S. Government employed 500 women in the Treasury department, but they made less than half of what the male colleges did. Throughout that year, a law passes the House of Representatives by almost 100 votes that included a resolution to ensure equal pay to government employees. This law, however was attenuated by the time it passes the Senate in 1870. The first public demand for fair pay for woman took place in 1883 when communications across the country came to a standstill when the majority of the workers for Western Union Telegraph Company went on strike. Their reasoning was partly to ensure “equal pay for equal work” for the male and female workers of the corporation. Although the strike wasn’t ultimately successful, it was the beginning of something larger. By 1911, New York teachers were finally granted equal pay to their male colleges after a long and vigorous battle with the Board of Education. As progress is still slow, women

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.

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

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

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed that didn’t allow employers to pay women less money than men for the exact same job. Even after all of the victories for Women’s Rights, women still aren’t being treated equally. They suffer from sexual harassment, a wage gap, and not being able to advance in the workplace. These problems continue to effect the lives of women all around the United States. Organization try to spread the word about the unequal treatment of women to everyone. If more people took a stand against this issue we could make the pay of men and women exactly the same.

Similarly, employment rights advocated in the 1960s were also concentrated on middle-class white women who only emphasized on the gendered differences that existed within their societies. They essentially argued for economic independence through the freedom to pursue a career and enter the labour market instead of being tied to the household (Bailey 91). The success of second-wave feminism was profound in terms of women’s entry into white-collar professions. The movement was able to acquire amendments to existing legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on sex, allowing women to enter into managerial positions. The 1963 Equal Pay Act which addressed the gender pay gap was also implemented by the government (Pettit and Ewert 469).

During the war in the 1940s, an aggressive media campaign urged more than six million women into the workforce. It is astonishing seeing each year; there were better accomplishments that women were making. Many learned new techniques such as working in steel plants, shipyards, and lumber mills. Sports also became a new and admired era in this time. The famous “Rosie the Riveter”, “We Can Do It!” was a part of the governor campaign that brought women into the workplace during the war. Following the end of WWII, most of these jobs went back to the men, and women were encouraged to either return back home or find a “female” job. This reveals that women were used. They were only needed when most of the men were in the war. In

Prior to World War II, employers and the government held that there were jobs appropriate for women and jobs which were inappropriate because women were not capable of fulfilling the tasks involved in such work. As we

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).