The Equal Pay Act: a Failure?

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The Equal Pay Act: a Failure? Women have faced gender wage discrimination for decades. The gender pay gap is the difference between what a male and a female earns. It happens when a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. On average, full-time working- women earn just “77 cents for every dollar a man earn.” When you compare a woman and a man doing the same job, “the pay gap narrows to 81 percent (81%)” (Rosin). Fifty-one years ago, in order to stop the gender gap discrimination, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The act states that all women should receive “equal pay for equal work”. Unfortunately, even in 2014 the gender pay gap persists and even at the highest echelons of the corporate; therefore, the equal pay act is a failure. In management, the activities in which managers engage, to attract and to retain employees and to ensure that they perform at a high level of competence and contribute to the accomplishment of organizational goals are part of what make up an organization's Human Resources Management system. In addition, to the complexity of Human Resources Management, increases local, state and national laws and regulations by which managers and organizations must abide. It is called Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), which ensures that citizens have an equal opportunity to obtain employment regardless of their gender, race, and country of origin, religion or disabilities. One of the major Equal Employment Opportunity Laws affecting HRM is the Equal Pay Act. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act that forbids gender-based pay discrimination of those performing substantially equal work for the... ... middle of paper ... ...women or men; black or white should get equal pay for equal work. These kinds of inequalities are unethical and possibly immoral. Works Cited • Brustein, Joshua. "Mary Barra's GM Pay Could Top $14 Million, Putting Her in the Big Three."Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. • Cohen, Marcia S. The Escape Clause. Rep. Institute of Science and Human Values, 2012. Web.23 Feb. 2014. • George, Jennifer M. "Chapter 12." Contemporary Management. By Gareth R. Jones 8e ed.N.p.: n.p., n.d. 366-400. Print. • Guarino, Mark. "Gender Pay Gap: GM Defends Compensation Package for CEO Mary Barra (Video)." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. • Kolhatkar, Sheelah. "Don't Worry: GM Hasn't Shortchanged Mary Barra." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 05 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

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