Equal Pay: Bridging the Gender Wage Gap

By: Reese Rosental Saporito

Edited By: Danielle Spitz and Maayan Abouzaglo

The gender wage gap has been prevalent for decades. In the United States, women are paid on average 82 cents for every dollar a man makes for doing the same job.[1] The progression towards equal pay has been slow, and if it continues at this rate, women will still be fighting against the wage gap until 2093.[2] In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which made it illegal for women to receive less pay than men when performing the same jobs requiring the same skills.[3] However, it is evident that this act has not performed the way it was intended, and these words must be backed by action. This act needs to be enforced by the government through legal protections and holding institutions accountable for upholding Equal Pay legislation.

The wage gap is a systemic gender issue that is rooted in the laws of the United States, and therefore must be reformed through policy. Though created to remedy this issue, the EPA has failed in practice. When the EPA was passed, its purpose was to put “an end to historical wage discrimination against women.”[4] While progress has been made from women earning 56% of men’s salaries in 1963 to 82% today, true equal pay has still not been achieved.[5] Another issue regarding the efficacy of the EPA is that it includes exclusions that are essentially loopholes for employers to pay women less than they do men without being punished by law.[6] An example of an exclusion is merit, for which people who produce “higher quality” work receive higher compensation that is highly subject to bias.[7] These loopholes allow for “justified” and legal gender-based discrimination in wages, therefore invalidating the EPA’s claim to end the historic wage gap for women.

In an attempt to combat this, The House of Representatives reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA) in 2019. This would not only increase the penalty for violations of equal pay, but it also forces corporations to disclose information revealing that any pay inequalities are based on factors other than sex.[8] The Harvard Business Review did a study that showed how the gender wage gap decreases when legislation requiring companies to disclose disparities in pay is present.[9] The issue with the EPA was the lack of resources to enforce the policies, making the legislation inadequate in mending the wage gap.[10]

Congress needs to ameliorate the EPA by getting rid of the exceptions that leave room for discrimination and implementing stronger enforcement of the rules laid out by the act. The EPA can be better enforced through the creation of a governmental branch responsible for continuously obtaining wage reports from companies all over the country, and cross-checking salaries to ensure women are receiving the same pay as men for the same work. The law must be used to challenge both wage discrimination and the inadequacy of the EPA, and legal protections must be in place to vindicate the rights of employees and hold corporations accountable for failing to recognize these rights.[11] To help in this accountability and to eliminate the aforementioned loopholes, the language of the act needs to be rectified to make it clear that wage differences among genders are truly based on factors other than sex, such as the presence of a master’s degree or strong recommendation letters.[12] In a world where money is the root of many problems, it is time that all people are paid equally for the work they complete, so that they can better their lives and the lives of those they take care of. Equal pay for women not only empowers young women to pursue their dreams in not traditionally female-dominated fields, while knowing that they will receive equal financial treatment. It will help push families out from below the poverty line and lead to an overall higher quality of living. Therefore, immediate action is utterly necessary to truly accomplish what the Equal Pay Act initially set out to achieve. 

NOTES:

1. AAUW:  The Simple Truth about the Pay Gap

2. AAUW

3. NCSL: The Current State of Equal Pay Laws

4. Why the Equal Pay Act and Laws Which Prohibit Salary Inquiries of Job Applicants Can Not Adequately Address Gender-Based Pay Inequity

5. EPA Not Adequate

6. EPA Not Adequate

7. EPA Not Adequate

8. CNBC: House passes new bill aimed at closing the gender pay gap

9. CNBC 

10. ACLU Paycheck Fairness Act

11. Rhetoric vs. Reality: Making Real Progress on Equal Pay

12. Rhetoric vs. Reality

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Bleiweis, Jocelyn Frye and Robin. “Rhetoric vs. Reality: Making Real Progress on Equal Pay.” Center for American Progress. Accessed January 31, 2021. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2019/03/26/467778/rhetoric-vs-reality-making-real-progress-equal-pay/. 

“Equal Pay for Equal Work: Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.” American Civil Liberties Union, April 4, 2013. https://www.aclu.org/other/equal-pay-equal-work-pass-paycheck-fairness-act. 

Katherine McAnallen, Kathy Brangoccio. The Current State of Equal Pay Laws. Accessed January 31, 2021. https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/the-current-state-of-equal-pay-laws.aspx. 

Kerenzulli. “House Passes New Bill Aimed at Closing the Gender Pay Gap.” CNBC. CNBC, April 21, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/house-passes-new-bill-aimed-at-closing-the-gender-pay-gap.html. 

Mello, Jeffrey A. “Why the Equal Pay Act and Laws Which Prohibit Salary Inquiries of Job Applicants Can Not Adequately Address Gender-Based Pay Inequity - Jeffrey A. Mello, 2019.” SAGE Journals. Accessed January 31, 2021. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019869106. 

“The Simple Truth about the Pay Gap.” AAUW, December 8, 2020. https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/.