Sophia Serrao
Fri, 06/09/2023
Sixty years ago, on June 10, 1963, the Equal Pay Act was signed into law. The Equal Pay Act was enacted to protect workers against wage discrimination based on sex, meaning it had a goal of bringing equality to compensation practices. This was a landmark piece of federal anti-discrimination law and one of the first to address pay disparities in this way. Sixty years later, women’s participation and security in the job market has greatly increased, but women continue to typically earn less than their male counterparts. The law mandates that equal work must be rewarded with equal wages, regardless of the employees’ gender. Unfortunately, the problem of gender disparity in wages persists because it is deeply rooted in employers’ outmoded pay practices.
Since the enactment of the Equal Pay Act there have been various other laws that have also aided in the mission of equal pay for equal work. Notably, a year after the Equal Pay Act was enacted, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted to ensure that, under the law, sex- and race-based discrimination are illegal. With similar missions, many Equal Pay Act claims coincide with Civil Rights Act claims as well.
Pursuant to the Equal Pay Act, if there is an inequality in wages between people of different sexes who perform substantially equal work, then employers must equalize the pay by raising the wage for the person who is underpaid. In practice, this typically impacts women in the workforce more frequently than men. Wage, under the Equal Pay Act, is defined broadly to cover all forms of compensation, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, life insurance, vacation and holiday pay, allowances, hotel accommodations, travel reimbursements, and benefits. Generally, most Equal Pay Act claims involve a salary discrepancy. Nonetheless, aside from wage disparity, other evidence of a violation of the Equal Pay Act includes: an absence of women in leadership positions; roadblocks to promotions; discouragement from discussing and/or negotiating salary increases; lower salary than male predecessor for the same job, or if you have recently changed jobs, learning that your male replacement was offered a higher salary; fewer benefits than provided to male colleagues (such as stock options, paid leave, or pension contributions); or an atmosphere akin to a “boys club” or “fraternity.”
As with any anti-discrimination law, the Equal Pay Act has specific requirements on how to successfully pursue a claim. For example, in a case alleging unequal pay, the jobs compared must be of substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions. Skill is measured by the factors that are required to perform the job, rather than the individual, such as experience, ability, education, and training. Equal work does not mean identical jobs, but rather that the compared jobs are substantially equal in overall job requirements and performance.
An employer can, and should, give reasons for why a pay disparity exists outside of the differing genders of the employees, and a defense exists if the employer can show their compensation structure is based on factors other than sex such as seniority or merit, or systems that measure earnings by production value.
The Equal Pay Act provides an important method for challenging unlawful and discriminatory pay practices for employees across numerous industries, including those discussed in more detail below. If you believe you have been paid less than your male coworkers for equal work, contact MSE at info@mselaborlaw.com.
