Equal Pay Day
By Susan Galpin-Tyree
I recall a time in my early working life being told that I would not be paid the full advertised wage because I was married and I had my husband’s income to rely upon. My husband was a high school teacher and his net paycheck for two weeks was $214. But, that’s a topic for another blog post.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, protects against wage discrimination based on sex. Since passing the EPA, Congress has expanded federal protection against compensation discrimination through additional laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967, and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These laws also prohibit compensation discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, abortion, and related medical conditions and procedures; sex stereotyping; sexual orientation; gender identity; gender expression; and intersex conditions), age (over 40), marital status, political affiliation and disability.
Started by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996, the goal of Equal Pay Day (it was originally called National Pay Inequity Awareness Day and changed to Equal Pay Day in 1998) is to raise awareness about the gender wage gap. This symbolic day denotes how far into the next year women must work to be paid what men were paid the previous year. This date is based on the latest U.S. Census figures showing that the average woman who works full time is paid on average just 83 percent of the typical man’s pay. Further, because the pay gap varies significantly among different communities, other Equal Pay Days have been added to the calendar to reflect the fact that many women must work far longer into the year to catch up to men.
In 1963, when the EPA was signed into law, women made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men (based on Census figures of median wages of full-time, year-round workers). By 2012, women earned 77 cents to men's dollar, a narrowing of the wage gap by less than half a cent per year. Over a working lifetime, this wage disparity can cost the average American woman and her family an estimated $700,000 to $2 million, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions.
The EPA’s intention is to expand protections against pay discrimination on the basis of sex and provide increased transparency and visibility into compensation and promotion practices. Unfortunately, the law has been weakened by loopholes, inadequate remedies, and adverse court rulings, resulting in protection that is far less effective than Congress originally intended.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. - 550 U.S. 618, 127 S. Ct. 2162 (2007) is important. Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear for gender discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the company had given her a low salary because of her gender. The Supreme Court rejected Ledbetter's argument that her lack of equal pay was cumulative over her career at Goodyear. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only female justice on the Court at the time, read the dissenting opinion from the bench, a gesture which indicated displeasure with the majority decision. Eventually, on January 29, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The act overturned the Court’s decision. It was the first law signed by Obama, with Ledbetter standing next to him.
As I consider the words “Equal Pay Day“ all I see are images of PayDay candy bars swirling in front of me. There’s the “king size,” and then there’s the “fun size.”
Ain’t nothin’ fun about it.
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