This paper examines the Equal Pay Act of 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, explaining its core prohibition on sex-based wage discrimination for substantially equal work. The paper traces the historical context of gender-segregated job listings and unequal pay prior to the Act's passage, reviews two landmark court cases—Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. (1970) and Corning Glass Works v. Brennan (1974)—and outlines the legal criteria of skill, effort, responsibility, working conditions, and establishment used to evaluate wage equality. It concludes by summarizing employer obligations and the role of HR departments in maintaining compliance.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It is a federal law that requires employers to pay all employees equally for equal work, regardless of their gender. The Act prohibits unequal pay for equal or substantially equal work performed by men and women in the same company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is charged with enforcing this Act. It also bars employers from reducing the wages of either sex in order to comply with the law.
The Act makes no requirements regarding 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 applies to all employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, including all professional employees such as executives and managers, as well as administrators and teachers in elementary and secondary schools (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 higher-level positions listed almost exclusively under the male category. In some cases, a paper would run identical job listings under both male and female headings but with separate pay scales. In the realm of employment, "separate" almost always meant unequal. Between 1950 and 1960, women who held full-time jobs earned, on average, between 59 and 64 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned in the same job (The Wage Gap, 2007).
It was not until the passage of the Equal Pay Act in June 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 justify different pay, but gender could no longer be treated as a drawback on one's résumé (The Wage Gap, 2007).
Several landmark cases have been decided under the Equal Pay Act. In Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. (1970), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit 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 simply change the job titles of women workers in order to pay them less than men performing the same duties.
In Corning Glass Works v. Brennan (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers cannot justify paying women lower wages on the grounds that such rates reflected traditional market rates for female labor. The Court further held that a wage discrepancy arising simply because men would not accept the lower rates historically paid to women was unacceptable (The Wage Gap, 2007). These two decisions together established important boundaries around how employers may structure compensation and interpret the equal-work standard.
"Skill, effort, responsibility, and conditions defined"
"Employer duties and HR department responsibilities"
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.