Equal Pay Discrimination

1454 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender equality in modern life

Throughout the history of the world, discrimination has been a consistent problem in society. Whether the discrimination is race, gender, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything else, it happens everyday. A significant discrimination problem is the wage gap and it takes place in the workplace. This type of inequality has been around for centuries. Women still earn considerably less than men because of unqualified, inaccurate reasons such as women making up a small portion of the workforce, and women being less educated. The wage gap is a statistical indicator often used as an index of the status of women’s earning relative to men’s. It is also used to compare the earnings of other races and ethnicities to those of white males, a group generally …show more content…

The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. The jobs do not have to be exactly alike, but they must be substantially equal. It is job content or not job titles that determines whether jobs are substantially equal. Specifically, the Equal Pay Act provides that employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions within the same establishment. According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s website, “The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment.” Not long after the Equal Pay Act was passed, the United States government created the U.S. Equal Employment Agency. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. The EEOC was made to enforce “...federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an

Show More
Related

  • Wage Inequality And The Texas State Government

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    The reality of wage differences between men and women is that above all changes women continue to earn less than men. Countless arguments have promoted that wage inequality has changed and that everyone finally receives an equal amount of pay. “For women of color, the gap is largest of all: In 2006, black and Hispanic women earned 86 and 87 cents on the white man’s dollar, respectively,” (Mcswane 2). If a woman is lucky enough she will get an equal pay compared to a man doing the same job. But it is challenging for a woman of a minority background to achieve this. Not only are women paid less because of their sex, but also because of their race. There seems to be a mentality that because someone is a woman and a minority that they cannot do the same job as men or that women do not have the same education as the men, so employers do not have to pay them the same. “When the numbers are broken down by district, they 're pretty hard to ignore. Women in Texas are being utterly screwed financially, according to the data compiled by AAWU, with women earning anywhere from 66 percent of what men do in some districts, to the top end of things, which is about 89 percent,” (Leicht 4). The proof cannot be ignored. It i...

    Read More

  • Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

    1829 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gale Cengage Learning. ‘The Wage Gap is the Result of Discrimination” (Mashaun D. Simon) Are Women Paid Fairly? Ed. Jennifer Dorman, Detroit Green Haven Press, 2013. At issue.

    Read More

  • Gender Discrimination Continues to Reflect in Wage Gap

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sex discrimination is still a major problem of today. In many different ways, women are deemed “lesser” than men, and one major example of this problem is the wage gap. Unfortunately, the wage gap still exists, and it is completely sickening. Many people disagree and say that the wage gap is non-existent, but that is far from the truth. The wage gap needs to close, because women don't deserve any less than men do.

    Read More

  • What Is Equal Pay For Equal Work?

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Despite the passage of protective federal legislation in the forms of the Equal Pay Act in 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Acts of 1964, there still exists prominent gender discrimination in the workplace that negatively impacts career advancement for women. This is best seen through the case example of Ann Hopkins. Hopkins was denied a career advancement to partner status within Price Waterhouse solely based on her perceived femininity and not the quality of her previous work for the company. This incident occurred in 1982, roughly 20 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII. Although the Equal Pay Act and Title VII have made great strides towards economic gender equality in the United States, they are by no means complete. The United States needs additional legislation in order to guarantee equal pay for equal work.

    Read More

  • The Equal Pay Act

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Social Equity and Accountability in Human Resource Management Functions.

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Equal Pay Act was created in 1963 to ensure that no matter whether a employee is a male or female, that both would be paid the same for the same work. When the Act was created woman were making fifty-nine cents on the dollar compared to man (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d., p. xx). Now woman are making eighty-one cents on the dollar compared to man according to the Department of Labor (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.). Unfortunately we still have an issue with equal pay between males and females. My opinion on this matter, is that society still sees men as the breadwinners of the family and require higher pay. If we want to make our nation a more socially equitable country we have to enforce the Equal Pay Act in our workforce. The Human Resource Management functions that deal with the Equal Pay Act are the hiring and development stages. In the hiring stage, managers need to pay the same salary to any ideal candidate whether male or female, who is able to do the job most efficiently. In the development stages such as promotions, managers have to make it fair for all male and female employees to receive the same amount in raises depending on their work ethics. My belief on Equal Pay Act is that any male or female who is capable of doing the work should get the equal amount.

    Read More

  • Equal Pay

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Equal Pay Act (part of the Fair Labor Standards Act), forbids employers to compensate women differently for jobs that are “substantially equal”, that is, almost identical. Traditionally, women have worked in different occupations than men; these occupations tend to be substantially different, pay less and confer less authority.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Equal Pay

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    First of all, when it comes to the law, there are two Civil Rights Acts that come to mind, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, no employer shall discriminate within any profession, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Equal Pay

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Equal Employment Opportunity

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Equal Pay Act was established on June 10, 1963(“The Equal Pay Act of 1963”). It is also referred to as the EPA. It was established to protect men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex based wage discrimination (“Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions and Answers”). Determining if two employees who are doing the same job are difficult for one or the other is a way to help the government develop a decision that will not oppose the EEOC laws for that specific job. This law states that equal pay is required only for jobs held in the same geographic area. Furthermore, the law also specifies that jobs are the same if they are equal in terms of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. It is permissible to pay one employee more than another if the first employee has significant job duties. Companies are permitted to pay for differences ...

    Read More

  • Gender Pay Gap Essay

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women’s right to equal pay or gender pay gap has been a subject of discussion over the years in the united states, women perform similar jobs to men, but are paid

    Read More

  • Article Bibliography Of Gender Equality In The Workplace

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    One significant discrimination problem that women are battling takes place in the workplace. “The pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement. ”(Miller p.3.). The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average “a woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman). “What Is Gender Equality?”

    Read More

  • Gender Discrimination In The Workplace Research Paper

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gender discrimination has long been a topic of discussion in regards to the workplace. With women claiming that they are being offered salaries and benefits less than that offered to their male counterparts, it's no wonder there has been a consistent fight for equality between genders. The apparent discrimination extends not just to companies with traditional hierarchies but also in the service industry where it is believed that your wages are earned based upon your merit. “The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the largest gaps in wages between men and women are in sales. In insurance, for example, saleswomen make only 62.5% of what their male colleagues earn, in retail just 64.3%, and in real estate only 66%. This is surprising considering that sales pay has long been thought to be less political and more merit-based (Harvard, 2013).” “Between 1980 and 2001, the gap narrowed substantially, from 60 percent to just over 76 percent. Much of what economists call the traditional rationales for explaining the gender pay gap -- such as workforce participation and education rates -- also shifted substantially in that time. In 1963, women accounted for 34.4 percent of the workforce; in 1990 it was 45.2 percent; by 2015, women accounted for nearly 47 percent of the workforce. Not only are women participating in the labor force at equal rates to men, but in 2015, more women held a bachelor's degree than men, marking a first

    Read More

  • Employment Equality And Employment Discrimination

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    To date, employment equality and employment discrimination are both serious issues faced by employers of the Irish workplace but also to the employees who are the ones being discriminated against. This can cause great difficulties for great Irish business people who are working hard especially during this economic recession. Employment equality is an issue which needs to be more dominant amongst businesses and workplaces throughout Ireland. To date employment discrimination is predominant to employment equality. Employment discrimination refers to being treated less favourable to someone else. An employee is said to be discriminated against if they are treated less favourably that another person is, had been or would be treated in any situation got to do with any of the nine grounds of the Employment

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Gender Inequality

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    A woman puts in the same amount of hours in a day to work equivalent to a man doing the same job. Women deserve equal pay for equal work. Why work so hard, only to get paid far less than you deserve? It is unethical to work just as hard, yet and get paid $.77-.90 less than a man. Equal Pay Act states that everyone should and must get paid equal for the amount of labor provided. Women work hard just as men do, often harder, and also take on other roles in their

    Read More

More about Equal Pay Discrimination

Open Document