Today, March 31, is Equal Pay Day. It also happens to be the end of Women’s History Month. We’re three months into 2020, which happens to be how long American women must work into the year to earn the same salary as men did in 2019. This date changes year to year as the National Committee on Pay Equity sets a date for “Equal Pay Day” to highlight the overall pay disparity between men and women who work full-time in the US.
Overall, women earn 81.6 cents for every dollar that men make, according to the most recent US Census data. If further broken down by race, the numbers can be worse:
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- Asian American and Pacific Islander women: $0.92, working until February 11
- Black women: $0.62, working until August 13
- Native American women: $0.57, working until October 1
- Latina women: $0.54, working until November 2
The EPA requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be “substantially equal.” What is “substantially equal”? It is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are “substantially equal” under the EPA.
Note, pay differentials are permitted when they are based on seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or a factor other than sex. These are known as “affirmative defenses.” This is the employer’s burden to prove that they apply. And different pay for equal work is permitted when the difference is based on seniority, merit, quantity or quality of work, or any other factor other than sex. But under this defense, the employer must prove that the reason they give is the reason for the pay differential, not just that it could explain the difference in compensation.
It is also important to know that under the EPA, when correcting a pay differential, no employee’s pay may be reduced. Instead, the pay of the lower-paid employee must be increased by the employer.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the EPA into law. As federal anti-discrimination law, it was the first to address gender-based pay disparities. President Kennedy knew it was only the initial step back then. In fact, he called the EPA a, “first step,” which, “affirms our determination that when women enter the labor force they will find equality in their pay envelopes… much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity. . . .”
Yet, still, even today, women tend to be concentrated in low-wage jobs — a full two-thirds of minimum-wage workers are women. And even for non-minimum wage jobs, women are continually paid less than similarly situated men in the same position. Moreover, women are still being forced to choose between their jobs, their family, pregnancy, marriage, and having a life outside of work. And that’s not a choice anybody should have to make.
It’s long past time to close the gap. We have to keep standing up for ourselves and our fellow sisters. Encourage and support women to keep moving towards dollar-for-dollar equality.
