The Fight for Pay Equity

(This article first appeared in the March-April 2015 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

The Equal Pay Act, signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963, made it illegal to pay men and women working the same job different salaries. Unfortunately, it did not close the wage gap.

When the act was passed, women were earning an average of 59 cents on the dollar compared to men. Today, while women hold nearly half of the jobs performing similar work, women earn about 78 cents for every dollar a man earns – a gap that results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Lilly Ledbetter won a gender pay discrimination suit of more than $3 million because she was paid less than males who did the same work at Goodyear. Her $3 million settlement was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal and she never received restitution.

However, in 2009, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier to file a claim. Before the law, women had only 180 days from being discriminated against to file a claim. The new law defines each paycheck as a new discriminatory act, so now women have 180 days from the date of their last paycheck to file.

Paycheck Fairness Act

In April 2014, the Senate fell six votes short of passing the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA). One argument against passing this legislation is that we already have laws making discrimination on the basis of gender illegal.

The PFA proposed critical changes to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act, including:

• Requiring employers to demonstrate that wage differentials are based on factors other than gender. This shifts the burden of proof from the worker to the employer;
• Prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquire about their employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages;
• Permitting reasonable comparisons between employees within clearly defined geographical areas to determine fair wages;
• Strengthening penalties for equal pay violations;
• Directing the Department of Labor to collect wage-related data; and
• Authorizing training for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission staff.

The gender pay gap affects all women, but for women of color it’s worse. Asian American women are at the top of the pay scale earning 90 percent of the salary of white males, and Hispanic women are at the bottom earning only 54 percent. (See table below according to statistics gathered by the American Association of University Women.)

Source: American Association of University Women

Equal Pay Day

Tuesday, April 14, 2015, is National Equal Pay Day. While some CEOs have been vocal in their commitment to paying workers fairly, American women can’t wait for trickle-down change. Wear RED to symbolize how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay! On National Equal Pay Day, let each of us rededicate ourselves to carrying forward the fight for true economic equality for all. The United States of America can and must do better.