What were the effects of the Equal Pay Act?
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When President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on this day, June 10, in 1963, it seemed like workplace equality was on its way. “It is a first step,” the President said during the signing. “It affirms our determination that when women enter the labor force they will find equality in their pay envelopes.” Show The act had been drafted by Esther Peterson, head of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor. It prohibited employers who were subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (under which the new law fell) from paying employees differently, on the basis of gender, for work that required “equal skill, effort, and responsibility.” In a sadly-prescient feat of mansplaining in 1964, TIME predicted why the law was unlikely to have the desired effect:
TIME was right about the law’s impact, if not the cause. When the magazine took stock of the act’s legacy in 1974, the wage gap at the time—women earned 60 cents on the dollar—was exactly the same as it was when Kennedy signed the law. “Equal pay for equal work is a familiar slogan of the women’s lib movement,” the story began. “It has also been the law of the land for large companies for a decade, but a law that was little noted nor long remembered.” The fact was, the law—along with other anti-discrimination laws passed in the intervening years—had not really been put to the test. In 1974, the Supreme Court decided in Corning Glass Works v. Brennan that the factory in question had broken the law by hiring only men for the higher-paid night shifts, and then women were owed back pay for the money they might have earned in that role. The TIME story cited several other examples of the 1963 law finally creating change: two cases in which AT&T had settled with employees, a steel plant facing a lawsuit, an instance in which Rutgers University was providing back pay to the tune of $375,000. The pay gap has narrowed since then–women made 78 cents on the dollar as of 2013, according to the White House—but the law’s aim, clearly, remains unreached. Write to Lily Rothman at . journal article The Equal Pay Act as an Experiment to Test Theories of the Labour MarketEconomica New Series, Vol. 63, No. 250 (May, 1996) , pp. 191-212 (22 pages) Published By: Wiley https://doi.org/10.2307/2554759 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2554759 Read and download Log in through your school or library Monthly Plan
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Abstract The UK Equal Pay Act of 1970 resulted in a large rise in the relative earnings of women in the early 1970s. As this change (unlike most wage changes) was largely exogenous to employers, one can think of this episode as an experiment for testing different theories of the labour market. Hence, study of the effects of the Equal Pay Act should be given considerable weight and is likely to have wider implications about the operation of labour markets. Most models of the labour market used by economists assume that employment is demand-determined at least after a large positive shock to the wage. These models would predict that female relative employment should have fallen after the introduction of the Equal Pay Act. Yet, it is hard to find evidence of this. This paper argues that female relative employment did not fall because the female labour market is, in part, monopsonistic. Journal Information Economica is an international journal devoted to research in all branches of economics. Theoretical and empirical articles are published from all parts of the international research community. Economica is a leading economics journal, appearing high in the published citation rankings. In addition to the main papers which make up each issue, there is an extensive review section, covering a wide range of recently published titles at all levels. From time to time special issues on selected topics are published, and are available as either single back issues or, if published in the current year, are included in the annual subscription. JSTOR provides a digital archive of the print version of Economica. The electronic version of Economica is available at http://www.interscience.wiley.com. Authorized users may be able to access the full text articles at this site. Publisher Information Wiley is a global provider of content and content-enabled workflow solutions in areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research; professional development; and education. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners. Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley has published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. Wiley has partnerships with many of the world’s leading societies and publishes over 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols in STMS subjects. With a growing open access offering, Wiley is committed to the widest possible dissemination of and access to the content we publish and supports all sustainable models of access. Our online platform, Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) is one of the world’s most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. What led up to the Equal Pay Act of 1963?As men began to join the military and women began to take over their civilian jobs, unions started to advocate for equal pay. They felt that this would prevent employers from undercutting future wages for men. In addition, the National War Labor Board endorsed the idea of equal pay for equal work.
What is the main point of the equal pay bill?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. Job content (not job titles) determines whether jobs are substantially equal.
What are the pros and cons of equal pay?Top 10 Equal Pay Pros & Cons – Summary List. What would happen if there was equal pay?The economic impact of this persistent pay inequality is far-reaching: if women in the United States received equal pay with comparable men, poverty for working women would be reduced by half and the U.S. economy would have added $482 billion (equivalent to 2.8 percent of 2014 GDP) to its economy.
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