Should Women Get Equal Pay?

Banetra S. LawrenceAdv. English 12

September 14, 2009

• Equal pay for equal work is the concept that individuals doing the same work should receive equal pay regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or nationality.

What is Equal Pay for Equal Work?

Wage Gap- the difference of wages paid between men and women

Took forty-four years for the wage gap to close nineteen cents (rate of less than ½ a penny a year)

*The Wage Gap*

DIMES

QUARTERS

DIMESQUARTERS

A woman makes seventy-eight cents for every one dollar a man earnsWomen of color get sixty-nine centsLatinas get fifty-nine cents

FACT

The BIG Difference

A woman working in a male dominated job makes less than a man in the same job. However, a man working in a female dominated area will tend to earn more than a woman in the same occupation.

INTERESTING INFO.

MEN

WOMEN

• Even though a higher education helps women earn higher wages, the wage gap between women and men of the same educational level still remains high.

Educational Difference

• No matter what kind of education a woman has, there will always be a wage gap between a woman and man, where the wage gap is in favor of men.

The BIG Difference

• Women that work full-time and have a high school diploma lose as much as $700,000 over a life time of work. Women with college degrees lose $1.2 million and professional school graduates lose up to $2 million.

LOSS of EARNINGS

• The American Association of University Women (AAUW) states that after graduating college, women average only 80% of their male counterparts wages and during the next ten years, women’s wages will drop to only 69% of men’s existing earnings ten years after college.

*FACT*

It affects woman’s spending power Jeopardizes retirement security Creates gaps in social security and

pensions Older women are also more likely to

live in poverty then older men.

How It Affects the Lives of Women

What people do not understand is when women get equal pay, their family income increases and the whole family benefits.

The Positive

In 1942, the National War Labor Board urged employers to voluntarily make wages or salary rates equal for women. Since the request was denied by most businesses, the Equal Pay Act was born.

Passed on June 10, 1963 but not effective until June 11, 1964 the Equal Pay Act was passed.

Equal Pay Act

This act made it illegal to pay women lower rates on a job based on their sex.

It also prohibits employers with four or more employers to pay unequal wages to men and women doing the same work.

Employers who violate the Equal Pay Act will have to make up the wage difference to employers, pay legal cost, and also be subject to civil fines up to $2,500 per violation.

Equal Pay Act

After the Equal Pay Act, two landmark court cases were passed which strengthened and furthered the Equal Pay Act, Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. and Corning Glass Works v. Brennan.

Furthering the Equal Pay Act

In 1970, the Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. court case was held at the U.S. Court Appeals for the Third Circuit. It ruled that jobs need to be “substantially equal” but not “identical” to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. An employer cannot, for example, change the job titles of women workers in order to pay them less than men.

Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co.

In 1974, Corning Glass Works v. Brennan was held at the U.S. Supreme Court. This ruled that employers cannot justify paying women lower wages because that is what they traditionally received under the “going market rate.”

A wage differential occurring “simply because men would not work at the low rates paid to women” was unacceptable.

Glass Works v. Brennan

The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) started an Equal Pay Day in 1996 which is held on a Tuesday in April.

**Equal Pay Day**

The purpose of Equal Pay Day is to inform the public about the gap between men and women wages.

THE PURPOSE

Tuesday was chosen to show how far into a work week women must work to earn what men earn the previous week.

**Equal Pay Day**

VIDEOS

• http://www.snackfeed.com/videos/detail/4b1b4a1c-3f77-102c-a525-00304897c9c6

• http://www.localnewscomesfirst.com/index.php?id=1093&option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink