Gender Pay Gap: Equal Employment Opportunities

Superior Essays
Gender Pay Gap
Jennifer Ortiz
ENG122: English Composition II
Nicole Elliot
August 15, 2016 Gender Pay Gap Equal employment opportunities and the right to earn a paycheck that is free from gender bias is the right given to all American females under the Equal Pay Act 1963. Equal pay refers to “the right of a man or woman to receive the same pay as a person of the opposite sex doing the same or similar work for the same or a similar employer.” (Equal pay, n.d.). Equal Pay not only protects wages, but also ensures employers provide employees equal compensations regardless of gender. Equal compensation is based on seniority, skills, and responsibilities performed under similar conditions. It is difficult to embrace that gender discrimination
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Laws like the Equal pay Act of 1963 and Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act have been implemented by the United States to solve this problem. Stereotypes based on society regarding roles and priorities of women have impacted these laws. Equal Pay Act 1963 covers the factors employers should follow to ensure pay equality. Still, employers have managed to find loopholes in the system to avoid closing the gender pay gap. Organizations like the Armed Forces have successfully closed the gender pay gap between females and males. The Armed forces have successfully accomplished equality pay, the rest of the United States can accomplish the pay gap closure as well . The Task Force and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are organizations that are helping improve and enforce current laws for equal pay. President Obama stands behind this organizations and vowed to continue to close the gender pay gap by pushing violators. President Obama stated in his proclamation April 11, 2016 “I call upon all Americans to recognize the full value of women’s skills and their significant contributions to the labor force, acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination, and join efforts to achieve equal pay.”(2016, para. 5) Making April 12, 2016, the National Equality Pay Day. If the President …show more content…
A., Hussey, A., & Jetter, M. (2011). The gender pay gap beyond human capital. Journal of Human Resources, 46(4), 827-874. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=895dfd87-bd8a-4d7a-abc3-fcfabae23956%40sessionmgr4006&hid=4104
Hill, C. (2016, March). The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016). retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.aauw.org/resource/the-simple-truth-about-the- gender-pay-gap/
Janssen, S., Tuor Sartore, S., & Backes-Gellner, U. (2016). Discriminatory social attitudes and varying gender pay gaps within firms. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 69(1), 253-279. doi:10.1177/0019793915601633
Kim, M. (2013). Policies to end the gender wage gap in the United States. Review of Radical Political Economics, 45(3) 278-283. doi:10.1177/0486613413487159
Obama, B. (2016). Proclamation 9422 – national equal pay day, 2016. Daily Compilation of Presidential Documens, 1-2. Retrieved from https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/14/2016-08848/national-equal-pay-day-2016
Tilghman, A. (2015, December 3). All combat jobs open to women in the military. MilitaryTimes. Retrieved from http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/

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