Happy Equal Pay Act Day

Posted by marykeating on April 12, 2011 under Sex-based discrimination, Wage and hour issues | Be the First to Comment

Today is Equal Pay Act Day, celebrating fifty years of the Equal Pay Act.

The Secretary of Labor issued a statement describing the department’s efforts to identify and redress “persistent challenges” to the pay gap between men and women.  It remains puzzling.  There are more women than men in colleges, a large proportion of women have been working full-time for decades now, and most people seem to agree that paying the same wage for the same job is only fair.  In studies correcting for child care leave, statistics still show that women who work just as hard as men are paid less.

A study published in The Atlantic gives examples of industries in which women are underrepresented, underpaid, and focuses on the lack of women at the highest levels.  Women make from 64 to 79% of the males’ pay.

One problem in rooting out the problem has been the courts’ reluctance to tackle equal pay issues unless the jobs are completely equivalent.  Proving equivalence is impossible in higher level jobs.  While one vice-president may have the same organizational chart level, the same number of direct and indirect reports, and the same level of responsibility as another, courts easily embrace the differences, and hold that the jobs are not equal, so a $40,000 pay differential has some basis other than gender.  Even in lower level jobs, small differences (including the fact that the woman does more tasks than the man can spell the end of an equal pay challenge.

Gender discrimination hangs on, sometimes below the conscious radar, and sometimes right out in the open.  There will be a lot of work to do so that the next Equal Pay Day is a true celebration.