The Legal, Ethical, and Strategic Implications of Gender Discrimination in Compensation: Can the Fair Pay Act Succeed Where the Equal Pay Act has Failed?

Despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act has been law since 1963, women’s pay lags behind men’s at every occupational level. Congress is now considering bills, like the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, to remedy salary inequities. This article explores the topic of pay equity as it relates to gender discrimination and provides a review of the research and literature related to the gender pay gap issue. The authors argue that the enforcement of existing law offers more promise in ameliorating pay disparities than does the proposed Fair Pay Act. The authors further contend that there are barriers to change, including social and cultural factors, which have limited the reach and effectiveness of the law in reducing the gender pay disparity. In April 2005, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the Fair Pay Act of 2005 to address pay difference between white men and women and minorities [1]. The legislation “would address the historic pattern of undervaluating and underpaying so-called women’s jobs” [2]. The bill says that “where working conditions are similar, wages should also be similar” [2].The proposed legislation seeks to address the gender wage-gap issue that has plagued the workplace for decades. Gender-based wage disparity continues to spark discussion, research, and proposals for remedy. A national group, Business and Professional Women USA,