Equal Pay Act of 1963 free essay sample

Equal Pay Act of 1963 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 established the requirements that women should receive equal pay for their amount of work. The history of this act was to end gender-based discrimination in labor wages. Throughout history women have been paid less than men even when employed in the same jobs. It was accepted in the U. S that men deserved to earn more money than women, even if their work was exactly the same. The mindset was that men were the heads of the households and they are the primary income producer in their families. The purpose of this act was to end the problem of sex discrimination in the workplace. Under the act employers are not allowed to discriminate against women on the basis of their gender. In order to recover from the act a woman has to prove three things. The first one is that an employer is paying men higher than women, secondly male and female employees conduct an equal amount of work that requires substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility. We will write a custom essay sample on Equal Pay Act of 1963 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Lastly men and women performed the work under similar working conditions. The act also established defenses for the employers. A male employee can get paid higher than a female employee by a seniority system, a merit system, a system whereby earnings are based upon the quantity and quality of production by the employees, and a differential based upon any other factor other than the sex of the employees. The act was passed in 1963 but it had many problems. The Equal Pay Act says that wages cannot be lowered for one sex in order to prevent raising pay for the other. Also some employers would change job titles and altar certain requirements just to pay men more than women. Even though there were many problems to the act and many employers were beating the system, through out the past few decades women wages have been getting more equal to men wages. Some interesting facts about this act is that workers in agriculture, hotels, motels, restaurants, and laundries, are excluded from the EPA, as are workers in professional, managerial and administrative occupations. In 1963 women were paid fifty-nine cents on average for every dollar paid to men. Forty years later that figure has grown, but only to an average of seventy-six cents. This act has created more promise and opportunities for women, but there is still a lot of work to get done because there are more than a million women in the U. S earning less than the federally established minimum wage. Women as a whole still get paid less then men but the tatistics also show how much women get paid by their ethnicity. Women with college educations earn only seventy-two cents for every dollar paid by men. African-American women earn sixty-six cents and Hispanic women only get paid fifty-four cents. The statistics are still astounding for women getting paid less as men but law makers are still trying to improve the gap between the two genders. Two examples for improving the wage difference are the Paycheck Fairness Act and Fair Pay Act. The Fair Pay Act would prohibit wage discrimination based on sex, race, or national origin and require employers to provide equal pay for work of equal value, whether or not jobs are the same. This topic is controversial and it’s been debated for many years but it’s time for change everybody should get paid the same if they do the same job. No matter what gender or ethnicity people should get paid the same. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 started a movement that people have to finish some time in the near future.