...Research the Equal Pay Act of 1963: why is it important to know this law when designing the internal alignment piece of your compensation program? The Equal Pay Act (EPA), “which is part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (FLSA), and which is administered and enforced by the EEOC, prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions” (The Equal Pay Act of 1963, n.d.). President Kennedy signed the EPA act in 1963 and establishes an important step in protecting women’s right in working field. In my opinion, there is no doubt that women are equal to men for getting jobs and deserve the same amount of salary if they are under same level of working environment. Hence, it is important for the organization to know this law when designing the internal alignment piece of their compensation program. As I learned in the first week, the compensation program is one of the most significant tools organizations could influence their employees (Milkovich, Newman& Gerhart, 2011, p.1). Whether it is well designed or not is able to determine the success or failure of the organization. In addition, Milkovich, Newman& Gerhart further stated that, “internal alignment refers to the pay relationships among different jobs/skills/competencies within a single organization” (Milkovich, Newman& Gerhart, 2011, p. 69). Even though the internal...
Words: 449 - Pages: 2
...variations with the “Equal Pay Act”. The thoughts and ideas of discrimination against those of different genders and how they relate to the pay scale. Being based on experience and time on the job plays a major part in the role of individuals involved in the working environment. Exploring the ideas and concepts behind this act and how it has transformed over a course of 50 years. Looking at real cases and even scholarly articles from individuals such as Christina Hoff Summers. Keywords: Equal Pay Act, Gender, Male and Female There are many laws that have prohibited individuals from being able to do certain things. One of the main things that we have seen throughout our time is the idea and concept that laws are not always for the people. When it comes to working a job, many people will focus on experience, education and previous job training that an individual has held to determine their pay. However, we have seen other issues that do not even apply to that. The “Equal Pay Act” was created so no one in the working lifestyle would be or could be discriminated against for any reason pertaining to the job and their pay. In a world full of opportunities, no one expects to go into somewhere and not receive the correct pay due discrimination which is illegal and unfair in many aspects of life. The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. (http://www.eeoc...
Words: 3577 - Pages: 15
...Yes, this is a direct violation of the Equal Pay Act. The Equal Pay Act states that no matter the gender of an individual, they must be a comparable salary if the job being performed is similar in nature and in terms of “skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions” (Bethel, 2013). Ms. Kate clearly outlines that she has not only has seniority over her male counterparts but holds licenses and other credentials that should place her in a higher pay bracket. Moreover, she has the ability to perform duties that the newly hired individuals cannot due to their lack of credentials and licensing. Also, based on previous performance evaluations, Ms. Kate has been graded at the highest level possible (Bethel, 2013). As the Fair Labor Standards...
Words: 364 - Pages: 2
...The Equal Pay Act was officially approved on June 10, 1963 as an amendment of the Fair Labor Standard Act, and was to ensure that no employer discriminate based on the sex of the employee, particularly those of the opposite gender, “of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). However, the EPA is not inclusive to situations where seniority, merit, and production is being considered. Despite the passage of this law, evidence shows that wage gaps between men and women still exist today. Based on data collected back in 2014, it “shows that women earned 78.6 percent as much as their male counterparts” (Tufarolo, 2016 p. 306). These numbers are quite startling in considering how much...
Words: 531 - Pages: 3
...According to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 states she would need to prove all of their jobs are substantially equal in effort, skill and responsibility while under the working conditions that are similar. So she would need to find someone with similar responsibilities, education, and experience and compare their wages to hers to determine if the employer has violated the Equal Pay Act or not (Perry, 2004). Since the one male with Ph. D. has a higher degree than hers but she has more experience than he does also she does supervise the graduate student interns but he does not so in many ways their jobs are not the same. Besides his Ph. D. could be in forensic science or in the mental health field she did not give that information in the letter so...
Words: 268 - Pages: 2
...The Comparable Worth Debate March 20, 2012 The Comparable Worth Debate Comparable worth means getting the same amount of pay for jobs of equal value in an organization. This is completely different from the concept of “equal pay” which means that workers who perform the same duties with the same job title get the exact same wages. Comparable worth is a recognized strategy for determining job compensation. If an organization is going to put a specific value on a function, it should also put the same value on other functions that are of equal importance. Comparable worth remains an undeveloped concept. Many court cases have been heard in reference to comparable worth but the suits were unsuccessful as the procedure is not clear. (The Law and Compensation and Benefits, 2009) If a company values a position, they should show the employees that they are valued and appreciated through salary and wages. I am certain that most employees would agree. As the HR department’s director, James Bledsoe, should consider the issue of comparable worth for reasons that involve legal and ethical consequences as well as the organizational structure. The pay system that a company uses reflects that company’s culture. The culture determines the policies and guidelines that are in place, the company’s expectations, and the way that employees carry out the company’s mission. Employees are more likely to coordinate their behavior with company goals without the need for vast procedures and mounds...
Words: 811 - Pages: 4
...Even in a world of trying to make men and women equal. That is definitely still not the case. Research shows that although women can do all of the same jobs that men can do, women are still paid less than a man even if it is for the same job. There are speculations on why women make less money, some say it is because men are the providers for their family, or because many women don’t work full time because they have a family to take care of at home. There is also other research about racial discrimination playing a role in the pay gap as well. Every state is a little different and has developed a little bit differently. Some states still have racial problems, some still believe that it is a man’s job to bring home the money to support a household and some do feel that men and women are close to being equal. With that being said every state has a different pay gap between men and women. “The best place in the United States for pay equity is Washington, D.C., where women were paid 91 percent of what men were paid in 2013. At the other end of the spectrum is Louisiana, the worst state in the country for pay equity, where women were paid just 66 percent of what men were paid.” (Hill, 2015) This shows how the wage gap varies, and even though in Washington D.C. women make 91 cent to every dollar that a man makes that still adds up to quite a bit of money over a lifetime. “Over a 40-year working career, the average woman loses $431,000 as the result of the wage gap.” (Glynn, 2012)...
Words: 1913 - Pages: 8
...or making it difficult to get there. Even though we have come a long way from how it was fifty years ago it’s undeniable that women still today are not accepted as an equal. Most women seem under-represented in upper management levels in many companies and getting paid less for the same work done by men. This paper will examine some of the obstacles that women have to face during their climb on the corporate ladder and once they arrive. I will also discuss how the gender discrimination has improved thru the years and explain what women are doing to try to break thru the glass ceiling. The Glass Ceiling Women have come a long way during the past century. They have flown alone across the Atlantic Ocean, they have been given the right to vote, they have gone in a rocket into space and they have even been elected to Congress. Even though all they hold all these achievements, women are still facing barriers and gender discrimination in the workplace. It has been shown that even if a woman has received the proper education and credentials, they are often not considered for the same job as a male with either equal or less credentials. This has created a greater gap in the income wage gap. Studies have shown that women without high school diplomas, on average, have an effective income less than that of men with equal education levels and years of work experience. (http://www.now.org/issues/economic/factsheet.html) Even though we have come so far, women are still not...
Words: 1440 - Pages: 6
...REFERENCES 1. Ashton, Deborah. "What HR Can Do to Fix the Gender Pay Gap." Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review, 02 Dec. 2014. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. 2. What We're Watching in the Gender Wage Gap. (2010, September 1). Retrieved October 8, 2015. 3. Neale, M. (2015, June 29). More Reasons Women Need to Negotiate Their Salaries. Retrieved October 8, 2015. 4. Maatz, L. (2014, April 5). The Awful Truth Behind the Gender Gap. Retrieved October 9, 2015. 5. Smith, K. (2014, April 10). The Gender Pay Gap Is Just the Beginning of America's Pay Inequity Problem. Retrieved October 9, 2015. 6. The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Fall 2015) (AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881) 7. Mind the Gap: How One Employer Tackled Pay Equity. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2015. 1. It’s no secret that women are paid less than men, even when occupations are held constant, and even when those occupations are high-pay and high-skill. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earning for American female physicians working full-time is $1,497, while for men it is $2,087. A 2013 BLS report shows pay inequity by occupation for women of all races: women in architecture and engineering occupations earn 83.7% to the dollar in comparison to men and in computer and mathematical occupations 81% to the dollar in comparison to men. When Forbes analyzed 2012 median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers data from BLS for the top-paying professions...
Words: 5900 - Pages: 24
...workforce as a whole takes action towards an equal gender wage. Pay equity is not something women have been totally deprived of. What women have received under the means of "equity" are slim to none and compared to the possibilities, it is not at all acceptable. Women are constantly fighting for equality as opposed to men because unlike the men, the women are put into and presented unfortunate situations. "Pink collar jobs" are what women are subjected to in the workforce. That very same subjection is what affects and deducts their pay. While it is overpoweringly domestic and of service, women who work in the service industry are paid very little by men who believe they should be performing the tasks of their said "job" for free in the comfort of their own home. There are many loopholes in consideration of how women are paid. Especially the "Motherhood Penalty" which literally means that a woman's pay can be cut simply because she is a mother to a child. Being penalized for a natural occurrence that typically can't be controlled once the deed is done is unethical. Most policies and penalties that are amongst the workforce are irrational. There has been some progress with pay equity which is better than none. Women will keep fighting until they see results of what they want though. Through the Equal Pay Act in 1963 and more recently from the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 the progress is staying in progression because the pay equity has begun varying by location. In some...
Words: 777 - Pages: 4
...A Study of pay Inequity between Genders Abstract As long as an American woman is putting in the same amount of hours with the same qualifications and experience in the same occupation as an American male, and yet taking home a wage that is any lower, she is not being treated fairly as an equal. Contrary to many arguments, it is unquestionable that a wage gap exists, and while there are various ideas as to the most probable cause, there is no reason why this gap should continue to go uncorrected or unchanged. Our government should take concrete steps to close the gender wage gap because it violates women’s rights and equality. The story begins at a local Radio Shack, it is Friday, payday. As employees open their paychecks, they are awaiting their annual raise. As one employee, Neha opens up her paycheck she finds she has not yet received a raise; she has waited all year for this raise. She is very sad to find she did not receive one. She begins to think maybe she did something wrong. She starts to think back through the year, and cannot seem to come up with any solutions as to why she did not receive one. She worked especially hard that year in hopes to receive a good raise and felt she deserved to be recognized for it. In the break room she overheard her co-worker John bragging to their colleagues about his second raise. Now John is making a dollar twenty five more per hour than her even though they both have been working at Radio Shack for...
Words: 2595 - Pages: 11
...50 times more divorces each year than there were in 1921” this shows that divorce is increasing. They are many other factors which have led to this dramatic increase, one of them being the changes in the law. The first law passed which allowed a divorce was in 1857; here “divorce was only obtained by a special and costly Act of Parliament” as mentioned in Item B. Men were required to prove their wives of adultery and women were to prove their husbands of both adultery matrimonial offences. This made gaining a divorce difficult; therefore when the grounds for divorce were equalized in 1923, they were 50 times more divorces each year than they were in 1921. This increase illustrates that once given the opportunity most couples decided to separate, and this was mainly due to being legally allowed to do so. Another example of a change in the law which led to an increase in divorce, is the introduction of Legal Aid (1949) which made divorce cheaper and accessible to all social classes, item B suggests that divorce was hard to gain and this law made it easier for people to get a divorce, this made getting a divorce easier as it which provided people unable to pay for a solicitor with free legal aid, thus increasing divorces for people who did not divorce due to financial reasons. In 1969, the government widened the grounds for divorce and due to this law divorce rates doubled. Women were free to leave their husbands simply because they were unhappy with the relationship that they...
Words: 794 - Pages: 4
...Accept things as they are Jane has three avenues to pursue in relation to her career. Jane’s first option is to stay in her current position as manager at her current pay rate and keep pursuing Ralph about getting her salary on par with what it should be; in other words to “accept things the way they are” and support S&J’s policies. Jane’s second option is to leave her position at S&J in pursuit of a career that will compensate Jane with the salary that matches her responsibility and skill level; it would behoove Jane to have a job to transition into prior to leaving her position at S&J. Jane’s final and best option would be to hire a lawyer in order to file a lawsuit against S&J for violation of the Equal Pay Act established in 1963. “The Act prohibits sex based discrimination in rates of pay for men and women working in similar positions”. The fact that Bob Thomas is making more than Jane while at a lower position but similar job description is the very reason the Equal Pay Act was established; to protect people like Jane from sexist organizations like S&J. The federal government would have a major influence in this case as they are responsible for the enforcement of the Equal Pay Act. Being that Jane is a manager in the accounting department of S&J she has documented and intimate knowledge of the unfair pay situation she has been placed in; with proper legal representation Jane has a very strong case against S&J. References: Byars, L. L., & Rue, L. W. (2011). Human resource...
Words: 282 - Pages: 2
...Wages: Is There Really a Gender Pay Gap Abstract The wages used in the following research paper were taken from a population of 100 workers and divided by 12 descriptive statistics. The purpose of this research is to determine if there really is a gender gap with wages. The following descriptive statistics were used: wage, industry, occupation, education, location (from the south or not from the south), non-white, Hispanic, female, ex-military, marital status, age and Union. This research paper will include the problem statement, research question, hypothesis, definitions, presentation of data, conclusion, implication, recommendations and reference page. This research paper is composed from peer reviewed journals and references are available on the last page of this research paper. Wages – Is there really a Gender Pay Gap Introduction Is the United States work force still facing the issue of gender pay gap? According to The American Association of University Women (AAUW) it’s real, it’s persistent, and it’s undermining the economic security of American families. This research paper will define that there is indeed a pay gap between men and women working full time in the United States. (Linda D. Hallman, CAE AAUW Executive Director, 2012) Problem Statement The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has been on the front lines of the fight for pay equity since 1913. AAUW members were in the Oval Office when President...
Words: 1936 - Pages: 8
...of the worker’s worth, and to the position or the duties required to accomplish the job duties. Compensation could and should provide motivation for the worker or applicant to perform to the best of their abilities, not simply clock in and clock out. WHAT IS COMPENSATION The meaning of compensation is as followed, a fundamental component of employment and a critical issue for management and policies set in place. It traditionally refers to wages of employment, to include base pay or salary, bonus or incentives, benefits, and non-cash compensations. Organizations need to set and communicate clear principles by which workers are paid. In the least, they should ensure compensation policies adheres to employment standards and legislation. Some compensation elements governed by regulations are Minimum wage, holiday pay rates, overtime pay, payment methods and times, deductions, equal pay, and vacation pay. Also, many companies adopt compensation principles that ensure fairness and equity in pay rates and salary administration, and transparency in compensation practices. COMPENSATION POLICIES: An effective...
Words: 2114 - Pages: 9
