Unit 21: Dealing With Restaurant Legal Issues

What is wage discrimination? Wage discrimination (also known as compensation or Pay discrimination) is “when employees performing otherwise substantially equal work do not receive the same pay, or remuneration, for their effort” ("Compensation Discrimination"). This type of discrimination can happen at the same time as other types of discrimination, but the most common kinds are gender and racial. Racial wage discrimination has mainly been eradicated due to how many civil rights laws have been passed. Gender wage discrimination, however, is still quite prevalent in today’s culture.

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.

Women continue to face disadvantages in the workplace in regards to not receiving equal pay as well. There are many instances where women have the same or more qualifications to do a job than their male counterparts but do not receive the same pay. This difference in pay is not only related to gender differences but also racial differences. Women employees of different racial backgrounds tend to earn less money than their white female and male counterparts. Many women of color often face discrimination when applying to jobs and are overlooked for a position despite having the qualifications to do the work. When they are hired to these occupations they are not receiving the same pay as their white female counterparts. This double bind that minority women face within the work place continues to lead to economic hardships. Regarding women in the workplace in general, due to society’s high regard for men they are often not promoted to positions of authority or receive equal pay because people assume that women are inferior workers. (Buchanan, p205-207)

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:

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.

getting equal pay for the same jobs and not getting hired for other reasons. The women in

If an employer violates the Equal Pay Act, it is ethical that they go directly to court. In order to take a case under this Act, “the Secretary must show that an employer pays different wages to employees of opposite sexes” (FindLaw). Once the Secretary of Labor takes the case to court with all the information needed to

A black woman makes 64% of what a white male makes and HIspanic female makes 54% of that same White male. Again these are numbers but when put into actual perspective it's a lot more horrible. In some cases just because she was a female women earned less than the very people they monitored and supervised. “Kerri Sleeman worked for five years at a company that designed, built, and installed laser welding assembly systems. When she was hired, Sleeman said company officials told her they didn’t negotiate pay. In 2003, the company was forced into bankruptcy and employees had to go through bankruptcy court for their final paychecks. When Sleeman looked at the court’s list of claims, she was heartbroken. People she had supervised had larger claims for two weeks of pay than she did.” When it's possible that your subordinates earn more than you, you know there is a problem in our society. Kerri sleeman didn't even know she was being cheated until the end. But Cheryl Hughes knew she was at a disadvantage from the beginning. Between balancing being a single mother of two and being an engineer she couldn't overcome the Wage gap. She estimates that she lost nearly a million in wages and salary just because of her gender. If Ms.Hughes had any lower paying job like most of our country the percentile difference in wages would have had an even worse effect on her and her

California’s recently amended statute requires that employees filing wage discrimination claims show that they and their counterparts of the opposite sex perform “substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, . . . under similar working conditions.” Systems based on seniority, merit, measures of earnings based on production quantity or quality, or “a bona fide factor other than sex” (such as “education, training, or experience”) are legal bases under the California law upon which to differentiate among employee wages. A factor other than sex cannot be “based on or derived from” employees’ sexes, must be

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.

Furthermore, the employment society has an unjust take on this. “Oh, female employees in a workforce? That’s a hassle to manage… We know, let’s pay them lower wages! Better yet, in some cases, let us just not hire them at all, even though they are perfectly qualified because a male worker can do it just as well.” Just as well… equally qualified... Hmm, something is not right here. Should women have to settle for lower payment rates just because of their

For example, the middle job wage for Canadian woman is 34 per cent lower than for Canadian men. This unfair treatment is advanced if the woman is an individual from a racialized assembles or has a handicap. A woman that is from a racialized assemble or has a handicap shouldn’t be given a lower pay than an ordinary woman/men.

The plaintiffs involved in the Dukes case claimed to have endured sexist comments while receiving lower pay and watching their male counterparts advance at a quicker rate. (Bernardin & Russell, 2013). They also claimed that the male dominated departments such as sporting goods, hardware, and garden, generally paid higher wages while offering more opportunities for advancement (Bernardin & Russell, 2013). Statistically, women in hourly positions at Wal-Mart make $1,100.00 less annually than male hourly employees, and the salaried gap is $14, 500 a year (Hart, 2006).

You could contractually require them to personally participate in the business, and restrict them to one property until they’ve proven themselves.” He then described typical terms in the franchise restaurant agreement: a 20 – year term with renewal at the franchisor’s option; a 5% to 6% royalty on gross revenues, and an up-front fee. “That fee depends on the strength of the brand,” he noted. “And you can structure the deal so that each franchisee is responsible for his own financing.” He explained that some franchisors handled all development, including market analysis, feasibility studies, site selection, and construction themselves, then lease the property to the operator. “But in others,” he continued, “franchisees must buy or lease the land in an attractive location, and build the restaurant themselves. Since Porcini’s doesn’t have a construction department, which might be the way you should begin.”