Equal Pay Act

Equal Pay for Women

June 10, 1963: John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law. Almost four decades later, men’s and women’s salaries have yet to reach equality, even with similar education, skills and experience. The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. The Jobs don’t need to be identical, but they must be substantially equal.

Although the Equal pay Act has helped many women find sufficient education and working opportunities, it still has its hardships when it comes to families. According to Americas Union Movement 72 percent of mothers with children younger that 18 work for pay. Also according to a study done by AFL-CIO working families pay a steep price for unequal pay. America’s working families lose a staggering $200 billion of income annually to the wage gap. The wage gap according to infoplease.com “is a statistical indicator often used as an index of the status of women’s earnings relative to men’s. The wage gap is expresses as a percentage and is calculated by dividing the median annual earnings for women by the median annual earnings for men. It seems that the rate of closing the gape between men and women is about to half a penny a year. If married women were paid the same as a comparable man, their family incomes would rise by nearly 6percent and their families’ poverty rates would be cut in half.

In the late 1960’s unequal jobs for lower pay for women was at an all time high. Newspapers would publish job listings in the help wanted sections, but a little differently than they would today. The job listings were separated into columns for men and women, with the higher level jobs listed as “Help Wanted- Male.” Also, they would run the same ad for the same job under both columns but having a huge difference in the pay scale. Between 1950 and 1960, women with full time jobs earned on average between 59-64 cants fir every dollar their male partners earned at the same job.

According the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission employers may not pay unequal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions with the same establishment. The U.S.