EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN

DAVID LUCEYCCV

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTKELLY STRUNK

BEGINNING OF WOMEN IN THE WORK PLACE

• In the first decades of the 20th century, women made up 24% of the work force.

• Because of the labor shortage during World War II, women took to the work force then making up 37% of the work force.

• Cont…..

• Men realizing that women were usually paid less for the same job, they were afraid that because of this “cheap labor”, women would take their jobs and/or having their pay cut.

• At this point, unions started advocating for equal pay. Because of this, the Woman’s Pay Act was introduced in1945. By 1960, women again held 37% of the work force with earnings of 59cents on the dollar.

.

On June 10, 1963, the Equal

Pay Act addressed gender wage

differences.

Fast forward to 1998….

Lilly Ledbetter to the rescue!

• Lilly retired in 1998, she realized that her earnings had not kept up with male managers. When she retired she was earning $3727.00 a month. ($44724 a year), a vast difference from the lowest pay of males ($4286 per month/$51432 a year) and the highest pay of males ($5236 per month/$62832 a year), at this time, women earned 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. Once aware of this flagrant discrepancy, Lilly filed charges of pay discrimination.

She argued that Goodyear paid her less because of her sex. To

have a viable claim, each intentionally discriminatory salary

decision have been filed 180 days after the fact. Ledbetter v.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. made it all the way up to

the Supreme Court where 5-4 said Goodyear was in the right.

In 2009, because of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, employees

now have “180 days from issuance of each paycheck tainted

by alleged discrimination.”

REFLECTION TIME…

Before this assignment, I had a very vague knowledge of Ledbetter v.

Goodyear, and women were paid less than men, I didn’t know just how

much and this assignment gave a better understanding of inequality of

pay. This policy is, in my opinion, important in social work because it

helps the worker make sure they are being paid equally, which would

bring the earnings up and more income taxes. I don’t see that this

assignment changed my mind about the direction I would take in human

services, because I don’t have a clue anyhow.

When I chose to do the policy research project, I’m sad to say I’m not up on any

policy issues. I went to the White House website and chose this policy over others

because I’ve always thought that it was a crock and wanted to learn more ‘cause

maybe I can help someone someday.

I didn’t hit any snags doing this, there’s a lot of information out there for the asking.

What I may have done had I thought of it, was ask a social worker how this topic

affects them and/or their clients, hind sight is 2020.

No challenges doing this, but haven’t gotten to the web-site format yet. 

 

~REFERENCES~

• Bible, J (2007) LEDBETTER V. GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER CO.:SUPREME COURT PLACES ROADBLOCK IN FRONT OF TITLE VII PAY DISCRIMINATION PLANINTIFFS. Labor Law Journal 58(3), 170-182• nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/1964-civil-rights