Angelo Corso
Professor Reilly
Tuesdays 12:00-2:50
26 September 2014
Today’s work place is a dynamic, fast moving, labyrinth of equal parts stress, frustration, office politics, boredom, and anxiety. This holds true for all of us mere laborers, and only seems to be amplified as we climb the figurative ladder to our non-existent destination, but are all obstructions and impediments created equal? In an ideal world, the obvious answer would be “yes”, but in reality, the truth is a resounding “no”. Complications and hurdles faced by women are vastly different to those of their male counterparts.
You may say this is unfair, and you would absolutely be correct. There is no reason why gender should be considered relevant in an employee’s professional life. The first and most glaring reason why we all sit behind desks, stand behind cash registers, or send e-mails, is because we are paid to do so. I know I wouldn’t work for free, and I highly doubt you would either. So this begs the question, if you and I do the same job, the same quality and quantity of work, for the same amount of time with the same experience, shouldn’t we receive the same pay? Again, in a perfect world, absolutely we should, but unfortunately, this is not always the case in practice. Fortunately there are laws in place such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, amending The Fair Labor Standards Act, which was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, that prohibits discrimination of pay based on gender, stating that “No employer…shall discriminate…between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex…which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions” (Equal Pay Act of 1963). Basically, what all that political jargon is trying to say is what was stated above, that gender should not come into play in the workplace. So we’re done here right? Wrong, so very wrong. Unfortunately, in retrospect, although the law did not leave any glaring loopholes for clever employers or big bad bosses to squirm out of equality in favor of greed or bigotry, the law did however lack the teeth necessary for victims to bite back at employers who skirted or dodged this law. Many employers today continue discriminatory practices in direct violation of The Equal Pay Act of 1963, taking advantage of widespread fear, misinformation, and the knowledge that many if not most of the victims of discrimination have been brought up and implicitly taught that this is simply the way things are and there isn’t a whole lot that can be done to change or improve their situation. They are also acutely aware of the belief among discriminated or victimized employees that they would face repercussions or consequences at work as a result of their actions against an employer. This is also untrue, as the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 also further protects workers from various forms of discrimination under Title VII that “prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin” (Civil Rights Act of 1964).
More recently, President Barack Obama signed into law The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which resets the 180 day statute of limitations imposed for filing lawsuits against employers who violate fair pay laws on every paycheck that was affected by that discrimination. This essentially gives someone who is discriminated against more time to come to the realization that they have been in fact cheated out of honest earnings, hire a lawyer, and actually file the lawsuit. This became necessary after the woman in the name of the law, Lilly Ledbetter lost her lawsuit she filed after she realized she had been cheated out of fair pay for nearly her whole working career (The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act). Lilly Ledbetter essentially lost her case because her employers had successfully hid their discrimination from her long enough to run out the clock on the 180 day statute of limitations, and this law was an attempt to remedy that foolishness. Perhaps more valuable than the actual bill being signed into law, was the publicity it brought to the issue of blatant and flagrant discrimination in the workplace. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act might not be as big of a household name as other more well known laws, but it is a step in the right direction.
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