What happens if the Equal Pay Act is broken?

Enacted in 1963, the Equality Pay Act is a federal law that prohibits certain employers from engaging in sex-based wage discrimination. Employers who willfully violate the Equality Pay Act may face fines of up to $10,000, imprisonment for up to six months, or both.

Why is equal pay for equal work important?

Equal pay is essential because every worker deserves to have a voice and be properly represented and protected. All modern organizations have the responsibility to ensure that all of their workers are valued and provided with tools and resources to feel secure.

How does equal pay benefit the economy?

Closing the gender wage gap would lower the poverty rates among women in every U.S. state and help many women and families achieve economic security. Equal pay would also cut poverty significantly in states with higher than average poverty rates among working women.

How does the Equal Pay Act affect employees?

The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. Job content (not job titles) determines whether jobs are substantially equal.

What are violations of the Equal Pay Act?

If an employer does not provide equal pay for equal work, then they may be in violation of the Equal Pay Act, and may be sued for discrimination. Some examples of EPA violations may include: Paying an employee less than another employee who performs the same work, based on that person’s gender.

Why are equal rights important?

They have equal rights and are equal before the law. These human rights are an important principle of any democratic society. These are rights stipulate, for instance, that everyone has freedom of expression. That everyone may freely profess their religion or belief.

Is it illegal to pay different wages for the same job?

The amended Equal Pay Act prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees wage rates that are less than what it pays employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under …

How does equal pay reduce poverty?

If working women received equal pay with comparable men—men who are of the same age, have the same level of education, work the same number of hours, and have the same urban/rural status—poverty for working women would be reduced by more than 40 percent.

How does the pay gap affect society?

Consequences of the Gender Pay Gap. Lower pay makes it harder for women, especially single women, to get ahead financially. Their lower earnings make it harder for them to save money for emergencies or retirement.