Think about a situation you are aware of where a woman was paid less than a man, in what you would consider a comparable position. Submit a 3-5 page paper on the protections afforded by the EPA (and PDA, if applicable), and analyze what the employer did right or wrong, and what steps you would have taken to bring the company into compliance with the law.
The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings. This difference is expressed as a percentage of male earnings. The gender pay gap reduces women’s lifetime earnings and also affects their pensions - this is one of the significant causes of poverty in later life for women.
The gender pay gap is a complex issue with many causes, which are often inter-related.
Direct discrimination explains why women sometimes still earn less than men - when women are paid less than men for doing the same job. But because of the success of equality legislation over the years, this factor only explains a limited part of the gender pay gap.
Women’s competences and skills are undervalued, so women frequently earn less than men for doing comparable jobs - that is, jobs of equal value. Pay scales for jobs requiring similar skills, qualifications or experience tend to be lower when they are predominantly done by women.
Another way in which women’s competences and skills are undervalued could be reflected in the promotion rates in an organisation - gender stereotypes mean that women may be perceived as less competent or 'managerial' - or that their status as mothers may mean that organisations question their commitment to work (being a father does not seem to create similar effects).
The Equal Pay Act 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. It is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are substantially equal. Specifically, the EPA provides that 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 within the same establishment. Each of these factors is summarized below:
Measured by factors such as the experience, ability, education, and training required to perform the job. The issue is what skills are required for the job, not what skills the individual employees may have. For example, two bookkeeping jobs could be considered equal under the EPA even if one of the job holders has a master's degree in physics, since that degree would not be required for the job.
The amount of physical or mental exertion needed to perform the job. For example, suppose that men and women work side by side on a line assembling machine parts. The person at the end of the line must also lift the assembled product as he or she completes the work and place it on a board. That job requires more effort than the other assembly line jobs if the extra effort of lifting the assembled product off the line is substantial and is a regular part of the job. As a result, it would not be a violation to pay that person more, regardless of whether the job is held by a man or a woman.
The degree of accountability required in performing the job. For example, a salesperson who is delegated the duty of determining whether to accept customers' personal checks has more responsibility than other salespeople. On the other hand, a minor difference in responsibility, such as turning out the lights at the end of the day, would not justify a pay differential.
This encompasses two factors: (1) physical surroundings like temperature, fumes, and ventilation; and (2) hazards.
The prohibition against compensation discrimination under the EPA applies only to jobs within an establishment. An establishment is a distinct physical place of business rather than an entire business or enterprise consisting of several places of business. In some circumstances, physically separate places of business may be treated as one establishment. For example, if a central administrative unit hires employees, sets their compensation, and assigns them to separate work locations, the separate work sites can be considered part of one establishment.
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" and it is the employer's burden to prove that they apply.
Example of unequal pay:
Former employee of Google has filed a complaint, Google paid women in preschool and infant/toddler teaching positions less than men for similar jobs.
The lawsuit alleges that Google puts women in lower salary bands than men, places them in jobs that don’t pay as much as ones dominated by men, and promotes women “slowly and at lower rates than it promotes men.” It also alleges that female Google employees are paid less than men “performing similar work.” Additionally, the complaint claims that Google is or should have been aware of these violations. “Google’s failure to pay female employees the same compensation paid to male employees for substantially equal or substantially similar work has been and is willful,” the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, Lamar had a master’s degree in teaching, but was placed in a lower salary level than a male hired at the time who did not have a master’s degree in teaching or as much relevant job experience. Lamar was placed at salary Level 1, which paid $18.51 an hour, compared to the male who was hired for the same position and duties at salary Level 2, with an hourly rate of $21 an hour. Lamar was allegedly paid less than her male coworkers who performed similar positions as her from July 2013 until she was promoted at the end of 2016. Google employed about 150 preschool teachers at the time of Lamar’s employment, and about 147 were women. Of the three male teachers, two were hired into salary Level 2.
“Ms. Lamar is only aware of one woman whom Google hired into salary Level 2 around or after Ms. Lamar’s start date, and that woman had over ten years of job experience,” the complaint states. “All the other women were hired into salary Level 1.”
When Lamar discovered that she was underpaid compared to her male colleague in a similar position, she asked Google to compensate her for the wage gap from when she started through when she was promoted. Google declined to pay her for the discrepancy, and Lamar resigned in August of last year.
According to Equal Pay Act, Lamar should get equal pay according to her experience, qualification and expertise. If her capabilities are parallel to the other male employee in same designation then they should get the same pay. As this situation was revealed by Lamar, ideally google should take immediate corrective measure inorder to cover this wage gap. They should collect data of salaries offered and should do thorough analysis.
Two Solutions For The Gender Pay Gap That Can Be Implemented:
1. Implement Pay Transparency
Pay transparency lets everyone know what their colleagues are earning and would make women aware if they are making less than their male counterparts.
Yes, it would be a bit of a headache for managers, especially in the early days. But having to defend the pay of their employees would not necessarily be bad for the corporation. It may ultimately work as incentive for employees to increase their productivity. It would force organizations to establish a meritocracy. Those who are most productive get paid the most. The highest pay wouldn’t go to those who ask for it, to those who threaten to quit, or to those who are friends with the boss, but, instead it would go to those that actually deserve more pay.
2. Eliminate Negotiation
A second fix for the gender pay gap is to eliminate negotiation. Study after study show that women don’t perform as well as men in negotiations. Often women avoid negotiation altogether, accepting the first offer presented by a prospective employer. One study of graduating masters’ students examined who negotiated their first job offer.
It seems odd to favor men, just because they’re better negotiators – especially if negotiation is not a criteria for the job being offered. It may be difficult to completely eliminate negotiation when hiring senior employees with varying degrees of experience, but it would be trivial to apply when hiring entry-level employees.
Of course, transparency in pay and the elimination of negotiation do not solve all the problems facing women at work. Issues of childcare are still there. Biases that favor men in hiring and promotion would also not be addressed by these fixes. Neither would women’s problems networking and developing valuable mentor and sponsor relationships. But it would be a great start for organizations who want to be leaders in achieving gender parity in the workplace.
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