Human Resources Recruitment and Selection

Human Resources

Recruitment and Selection

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a change to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It is a federal law that necessitates employers to pay all employees equally for equal work, regardless of their gender. This act bans unequal pay for equal or considerably equal work performed by men and women in the same company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is charged with enforcing this act. It also bars employers from dropping the wages of either sex in order to comply with the law. The act makes no requirements as to wage discrimination based on race or national origin, addressing only the issue of sex-based wage discrimination and covering only situations involving substantially equal work. The Equal Pay Act pertains to all employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Equal Pay Act covers all professional employees such as executives and managers and includes administrators and teachers in elementary and secondary schools as well (Equal Pay Act, 2010).

Up until the early 1960s, newspapers printed separate job listings for men and women. Jobs were classified according to sex, with the higher level jobs listed almost exclusively under the males category. In some cases the paper would run identical jobs under male and female listings but with separate pay scales. In regards to employment separate almost always meant unequal. Between 1950 and 1960, women who held full time jobs earned on average between 59 -- 64 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned in the same job (The Wage Gap, 2007).

It wasn't until the passage of the Equal Pay Act in June of 1963 that it became illegal to pay women lower rates for the same job strictly on the basis of their sex. Verifiable differences in seniority, merit, the quality or quantity of work, or other considerations might merit different pay, but gender could no longer be viewed as a drawback on one's resume (The Wage Gap, 2007).

Landmark cases that have been decided in regards to the Equal Pay Act include the following. Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. (1970), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In this case the court ruled that jobs need to be substantially equal but not identical to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. In other words an employer cannot change the job titles of women workers in order to pay them less than men. Corning Glass Works v. Brennan (1974), U.S. Supreme Court. In this case the court ruled that employers cannot rationalize paying women lower wages because that is what they traditionally received under the going market rate. They went on to say that a wage discrepancy occurring simply because men would not work at the low rates paid women was unacceptable (The Wage Gap, 2007).

Employers are not allowed to 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 company. Each of these aspects must be taken into consideration when applying this law.

Skill -- is measured by things such as the experience, ability, education, and training required in order to perform the job. The key issue is what skills are required to do the job and not what skills the individual employees may have.

Effort -- is the quantity of physical or mental exertion that is needed to perform the job. If the job requires more effort than the other jobs and if that extra effort is substantial and is a regular part of the job then it would not be a violation to pay that person more, regardless of whether the job is held by a man or a woman.

Responsibility -- is the degree of responsibility that is required in performing the job.

Working Conditions - this includes two factors: (1) physical surroundings like temperature, fumes, and ventilation, and (2) hazards.

Establishment -- is the prohibition against compensation discrimination under the EPA and applies to any jobs within any establishment. An establishment is a distinctive physical place of business rather than an entire business or enterprise consisting of several places of business. In some situations, physically separate places of business are treated as one establishment. (Equal Pay Act Law & Legal Definition, 2010).