Gender Pay Gap: Are Women Paid Fairly in the Workplace?

Pay Equity in the States

“…Extant federal laws—which include the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—pertain to equal pay for equal work; in effect, they apply only to work within a single establishment (Billitteri, 2008; Giapponi & McEvoy, 2006; National Women’s Law Center, 2010). Comparable worth, or pay equity, law would not require that positions be compared to others within the same establishment.…”

“…Thus, if female-dominated occupations systematically and historically have been undervalued, then perhaps a systematic job evaluation could be used to help put women's pay on a more equal footing with that of men. Some say that federal laws are not being adequately enforced, whereas others say that additional legislation is needed at the federal level (see Billitteri, 2008). Blau and others state that once the factors above have been controlled for-educational attainment, labor force experience, occupational segregation, and so on-64% of the wage gap remains unexplained (Blau & Kahn, 2006;Blau et al, 1998).…”

“…However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals overturned that ruling in an opinion written by Anthony Kennedy (Billitteri, 2008). In the end, the state of Washington settled with the employees to avoid additional litigation.…”

“… 2. Two court cases that are often analyzed in terms of their lack of impact on pay equity/comparable worth policy are County of Washington v. Gunther (1981) , in which female prison guards (“matrons”) were paid less to guard female prisoners than male guards (“deputy sheriffs”) were to guard male prisoners (Billitteri, 2008) and AFSCME v. the State of Washington (1985) in which the state had conducted a massive classification and compensation study that showed that women’s jobs in state employment were systematically undervalued by a total of US$800 million; funds were committed to rectify the situation. However, when a new governor was elected—the highly conservative Democrat Dixy Lee Ray, first female governor of the state—she refused to spend the funds for the workers, even though the state had a budget surplus.…”