Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 11

Equal pay for equal work is mandated by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Therefore, it is the law today. However, the burden of proof seems to lie with the employee.

Recent proposed legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, would have given employees with wage disputes more time to lodge their complaints and sue employers who did not adhere to the Title VII mandate. Currently any wage disputes must be lodged within 180 days of the employer’s first violation, per ruling by the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the legislation died in the Senate. So the current regulations still stand.

This presents a problem for the employee who suspects discrimination, but cannot access the information within the 180 days to prove it.

Presently, according to an editorial in the Miami Herald, American women earn about three-fourths the pay of men doing an equal job. For black and Hispanic women, this figure is even lower.

Women are no longer the secondary breadwinners. Today, many women are the sole head of household. Married women today must also take an equal responsibility in earning income as it is difficult for most families to survive on one salary. Women are no longer working to get out of the house, to gain personal fulfillment, or to just benefit society by contributing their talents and skills. Although these may be factors, most women work to survive. Even withstanding this state of affairs, women deserve equal pay because they have equal investment of preparation, time, and energies in their work.

There are some possible reasons for the disparity between salaries, though, that women could rectify by being more pro-active. Women need to ask for the raise. They need to know their worth and not take less just because they have a husband who brings home a good salary. Before taking a job, women need to interview with at least several companies, and they need to find out from other women which companies are gender biased and which ones are fair.

How can women go about this? First, women and all working people for that matter, need to keep their resumes up to date and include all information that sets them apart from the crowd: advanced training, professional accomplishments, and excellent performance reviews.

Women should join their professional and trade organizations. Networking with others in a similar occupation is valuable in learning about what others are being paid, what other job opportunities are