Pay Equity Limitations

Despite the fact that the federal government and most states have adopted laws—with varying protections—providing employees with statutory means to challenge wage disparities based on sex, the wage gap persists. The rationale behind the nation’s newest pay equity laws in California, Massachusetts, and New York is certainly grounded in social justice and equity concerns that women, in many cases, earn less than men for performing the same work. However, these three laws were driven in large part by the economic burden lower wages are placing on women, families, and those states’ economies as a whole. Because women are working in higher numbers than ever before, the economic concerns that California, Massachusetts, and New York’s state legislatures expressed are important factors supporting broader pay equity laws.
Kansas also runs the risk of falling well behind the movement toward such expanded pay equity statutes. The state did not shift …show more content…
They cite expenditures on implementing pay equity programs and general interference with the private sector market as undesirable effects. Further, critics note, the potential for more women entering the marketplace could result in lower wages for men and women because of employers’ financial limitations. However, a study published in 1994—about three decades after both the Equal Pay Act and Title VII were enacted—found that gradual introductions of pay equity changes “minimize potential negative effects.” Further, the study found “minimal” to no effects of strengthened pay equity programs on depressed wages or declining employment in either the public or private sectors. To ensure that Kansas does not take too drastic an approach to amending its pay equity statute, it should adopt only parts of the more advanced pay equity statutes California, Massachusetts, and New York