Why Are Working Women Still Unable to Obtain Equal Pay for Equal Work?

Fact Sheet - Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund - February 2004

Forty years ago, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) into law, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to women and men who hold the same job and do the same work. Today, while the EPA has helped women to narrow the wage gap, the promise of the Equal Pay Act remains unfulfilled.

Wage discrimination affects family economic security today and retirement income tomorrow. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund believes that ensuring pay equity is an issue of profound importance to the guarantee of equal rights and justice for all Americans.

Today, women who make the same career choices as men and work the same hours still earn less than their male counterparts. For example:

Women working full-time earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. Women of color earn considerably less: an African-American woman earns just 69 cents to every dollar earned by a white man; a Hispanic woman earns only 56 cents.
According to a 2003 report by the General Accounting Office, even when accounting for demographic and work-related factors such as occupation, industry, race, marital status and job tenure, women still have not achieved pay equity. This earnings gap cannot be explained due to differences in work patterns or histories.

Although enforcement of the EPA as well as other civil rights laws has helped to narrow the wage gap, unequal pay between men and women remains a serious problem. Lower court decisions, as well as some outdated provisions of the EPA, have diluted the effectiveness of the law in addressing wage discrimination.

Under current law, an employer may defend itself against a change of gender-based pay discrimination by arguing that the pay differential is based on a "factor other than sex." Some lower courts have interpreted this defense so broadly as to include factors that are inherently discriminatory and contradict the very purpose of the EPA (e.g., the fact that a man previously had a higher salary means that he has to be paid more in a new job).
Wage discrimination not only affects family economic security today, it reduces the retirement income women receive in later years. Fewer women than men receive pensions - and those who do receive them receive substantially less in pension income. Women of color receive even less.

Wage discrimination remains a serious problem. Improving the lives of women and families by realizing the promise of equal pay for equal work is a critical civil rights priority.

The Effect - One Example

Harris v. City of Harvey
Dolores Harris was hired for a position of "driver" in an Illinois city's Streets Department, a position no woman had held before. Harris worked full time on the street sweeper, and the city admitted that she performed the same work as other drivers. But she earned only $5 an hour ($10,400 annually), a part-time wage rate, despite her full-time work. The other drivers, who were all men, earned between $20,000 and $30,000 annually. After four months on the job, her pay was increased, but not to the level of the other (male) drivers.