Equal pay act

Chapter 1: The Scenario

The story begins at a local Wal-Mart super center, its Friday, payday. As employees open their paychecks they are awaiting their annual raise. As one employee, Sue opens up her paycheck she finds she has not yet received a raise; she has waited all year for this raise. She is very sad to find she did not receive one, she begins to think maybe she did something wrong. She starts to think back through the year, and can not seem to come up with any solutions as to why she did not receive one. She really felt she worked especially hard that year in hopes to receive a good raise and really felt she deserved to be recognized for it. In the break room she overhears John, her follow co-worker, bragging to their colleague’s about his second raise. Now John is making $1.25 more per hour than her even though they both have been working at Wal-Mart for two years. They both have the same job descriptions and titles so there should not be differences in their pay. Sue can not quite understand why he received two when she only received one. She has seen him numerous times being tardy for work or calling in sick. She knows she is a better worker and is more efficient. Sue recently took a human resource class at Buffalo State College and she remembers learning about a law regarding equal pay. She can’t seem to recall the specifics, so she is determined to look into it further and fix the problem.

Chapter 2

Sue: The Victim

Sue is a 35 year old divorcee and mother of two young children. For the past ten years or so she has been doing similar work in retail that pays mediocre wages and that have given her good benefits. About two years ago Sue got was laid off from her last job. She applied at many different entry-level positions, as she has no other experience. She does not receive a lot of child support from her ex-husband so Sue relies on the income she brings in to support her and her two children. When Wal-Mart called Sue for an interview, she was so relieved and excited about the opportunity. Wal-Mart hired Sue; she was told that she would start above minimum because of her ten years experience in the field. She was also told that all full-time employees, based upon work performance, receive an annual raise of a dollar each year of their employment. Sue also received a 401k plan. Sue was excited, she hoped to slowl...

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...to review stale pay practices will find themselves unable to retain these valuable employees as well as risk being in breach of the federal civil rights laws. It should be encouraged that all employers closely examine their salary policies in order to identify and voluntarily eliminate pay discrepancies based solely on gender.

Chapter 7: Sue’s New Lifestyle

After winning her court case and receiving her deserved compensation Sue found another job that would ensure she would never be discriminated by pay again. Sue is a manager at Victoria’s Secret where she feels more comfortable around women like her, and most important of all she is treated the way she should be. Sue also used some of her settlement money to move into a nicer place. She is much happier in an apartment that does not have any water leaks and her children are safer and better cared for. Sue spends her spare time as an advocate for women’s rights. In the end Sue is glad that she spoke up against her mistreatment, and has helped several other women with similar situations where they did not have the courage to speak up.

this paper is in the form of a story on the equal pay act