Early this year, in response to the long-standing and persistent pay disparity for equal work that still exists between men and women, the House of Representatives responded to a much demanded update to the Equal Pay Act (EPA1) by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA).2 The legislation, awaiting vote in the Senate this fall, would put teeth into the EPA in an attempt to do what the EPA has never been able to—equalize pay for equal work between men and women. This article discusses the EPA’s failure to close the wage gap and scrutinizes the PFA, its impact on the EPA and existing gender pay disparity. It also surveys other major PFA provisions and their effect on existing labor laws.
Why the EPA Is Not Working
Despite the EPA’s ambitious anti-discriminatory purpose in mandating equal pay for equal work between genders, 46 years after its enactment women still make on average only 78 percent of what a man does for the same work. Many have felt that a large part of the problem lies within the language behind the law’s “catch-all” provision which allows a pay disparity where an employer can assert that it was based on “any other factor other than sex.”
