November 3rd, 2009By Joanne Aika Castillo
There are several employment discrimination laws enforced by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to ensure that American citizens are protected from compensation discrimination. Among them are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, and the American Disabilities Act of 1990.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is an amendment to the Fair Labors Standards Act that prohibits wage discrimination based on sex. It enforces that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work rendered in the same establishment. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the jobs are identical but rather substantially equal in terms of its nature and responsibilities. There is an emphasis on job content rather than job title.
In order to establish that jobs are substantially equal in nature, factors such as skill, effort, responsibility, work conditions, and establishment should be considered. Skills refer to the person’s education, training, and experience. The emphasis is on the skill required by the job and not necessarily the skill that the person already has. Even if one has a masters degree in chemistry but works as a call center agent, it shouldn’t matter because a masters is not required skill for the job.
Effort, on the other hand, pertains to the amount of physical and mental strength exerted in order to do a job. Responsibility refers to the degree of a person’s accountability in reference to the final output or the number of people handled by that person. It is only acceptable for a person who has greater effort and responsibility to receive a higher compensation than those with less effort and lighter responsibilities.
It should also be established that the employees involved are working in the same work conditions. This includes the physical surrounding such as temperature and ventilation, and the risk factors of that particular workplace. The Equal Pay Act is applicable to jobs within the same company location or establishment.
The Congress initially justified that sex discrimination in the workplace should be abolished because it promotes unequal opportunities for men and women which results to unfavorable living standards, health and efficiency for workers. Sex discrimination prevents the maximum utilization of the labor resource. It also causes a lot of labor disputes that disrupt the flow of business.
Joanne Aika Castillo is a legal researcher who writes informative articles on employment law, civil rights, medical malpractice, and personal injury cases in Illinois. For information on Illinois civil rights attorneys, please visit Dolan Law Offices today.
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