The #MeToo movement has compelled employers to take a harder look at their workplace policies and practices and to ensure appropriate workplace behavior among their employee ranks. While the specific issue of sexual harassment has garnered the bulk of the headlines, potential pay gaps between men and women are equally deserving of attention and remediation even when, as is often the case, it is simply an inadvertent consequence of a legitimate pay practice. In this three-part series, Brian Murphy and Jonathan Stoler will provide employers with the tools to identify gender inequities in compensation and offer strategies for resolving them prospectively. Part I will focus on the historical context and current legislative landscape informing employer approaches to pay equity concerns. Part II will introduce employers to pay equity audits as a tool for addressing compensation disparities. And Part III will offer employers tips for implementing remediation efforts and adjusting practices to ensure future compliance.
Part I: The Historical and Legislative Context Informing Pay Equity Efforts
Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act for the specific purpose of “prohibiting discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.” The EPA was enacted one year earlier than Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, perhaps highlighting the gravity with which Congress viewed the issue. Indeed, at the time of the EPA’s enactment, Congress expressed that wage differentials depressed wages, prevented the maximum utilization of labor resources, contributed to labor disputes, burdened commerce, and constituted an unfair method of competition. Eradication of the wage gap was described as “a most worthy national policy.”
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