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Equal pay for equal work

Concept of labour rights

Equal pay for equal work

Summary

Concept of labour rights

Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary payments, bonuses and allowances. Some countries have moved faster than others in addressing equal pay.

Early history

As wage labor became increasingly formalized during the Industrial Revolution, women were often paid less than their male counterparts for the same labor, whether for the explicit reason that they were women or under another pretext. The principle of equal pay for equal work arose at the same part of first-wave feminism, with early efforts for equal pay being associated with nineteenth-century Trade Union activism in industrialized countries: for example, a series of strikes by unionized women in the UK in the 1830s. Pressure from Trade Unions has had varied effects, with trade unions sometimes promoting conservatism. Carrie Ashton Johnson was an American suffragist who related equal pay and wages of women in the industrial workforce to the issue of women's suffrage. In 1895, she was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as having said, "When women are given the ballot, there will be equal pay for equal work."

Before woman's suffrage, women who sought equal pay for equal work used a variety of strategies to convince city and state governments that they deserved the same pay as their male counterparts. For example, the women in the New York City Interborough Association of Women Teachers won their campaign in 1911 by streamlining their goals and emphasizing women's important role in the schoolroom.

Following the Second World War, trade unions and the legislatures of industrialized countries gradually embraced the principle of equal pay for equal work; one example of this process is the UK's introduction of the Equal Pay Act 1970 in response both to the Treaty of Rome and the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968. In recent years European trade unions have generally exerted pressure on states and employers to progress in this direction.

International human rights law

In international human rights law, the statement on equal pay is the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention, Convention 100 of the International Labour Organization, a United Nations body. The Convention states that

:: Each Member shall, by means appropriate to the methods in operation for determining rates of remuneration, promote and, in so far as is consistent with such methods, ensure the application to all workers of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value.

Equal pay for equal work is also covered by Article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 4 of the European Social Charter, and Article 15 of African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. The Constitution of the International Labour Organization also proclaims "the principles of equal remuneration for equal value".

The EEOC's four affirmative defenses allows unequal pay for equal work when the wages are set "pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) ... any other factor other than sex." A pay differential due to one of these factors is not in breach of the convention.

Criticism

Criticisms of the principle of equal pay for equal work by women include criticism of the mechanisms used to achieve it and the methodology by which the gap is measured. Some believe that government actions to correct gender pay disparity serve to interfere with the system of voluntary exchange. They argue the fundamental issue is that the employer is the owner of the job, not the government or the employee. The employer negotiates the job and pays according to performance, not according to job duties. Others contend that men are perceived to be high performers based on the same skill that a woman would have been able to do. A private business would not want to lose its best performers by compensating them less and can ill afford paying its lower performers higher because the overall productivity will decline. However, the Independent Women's Forum cites another study that prognosticates the wage gap possibly disappearing "when controlled for experience, education, and number of years on the job".

The difference between equal pay for equal work and equal pay for work of equal value

Equal pay for equal workEqual pay for work of equal value
Equal pay compares the pay of incumbents in the same or very similar jobs.Pay equity compares the value and pay of different jobs, such as nurse and electrician.
In Canada, either men or women can complain that their work is undervalued. If a male incumbent is paid less than a female incumbent in the same job, he can file a complaint. As well, a woman or man can complain if she or he is paid less than a man or woman in the same job.In Canada, only people (both men and women) in jobs traditionally reserved for women can complain that their work is undervalued. If nurses are paid less than electricians by the same employer, then they can file a complaint.

According to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupations that are more male dominated tend to be paid better regardless of skill or education level.

For example, it often requires a similar level of skill and education to be an electrician as it does to be a nurse. However, electricians, a male-dominated field, earn more than nurses, a female-dominated field. In situations where, for example, the electrician is performing their job 200 feet above the base floor of an offshore oil rig, then pay should be higher because the risks are likewise higher. However, this does not explain the gap between the average work of electricians.

A criticism to equal pay for work of equal value is the lack of proper comparation mechanisms, it is based on subjective impressions and not based on real facts and statistics. As in previous example, checking statistic data from US BLS, we can prove that it is a false statement that electricians earn more than nurses. Based on the statistics electricians earn ~$1015/weekly while nurses earn ~$1223/weekly, so in this case proving that nurses, a female dominated field, earn more than electricians, a male dominated field.

Transparency laws

Main article: Compensation transparency

A woman holding up a sign protesting that she earns less than a "him" (a male coworker) for the same work

Transparency laws require companies to disclose wages to employees or the government. This can reduce the gender pay gap by allowing women to negotiate for equivalent pay (rather than a salary history which may reflect past discrimination) and by shaming employers into treating men and women equally.

United States

A number of jurisdictions in the United States have enacted laws which require employers to furnish salary ranges per role on job advertisements.

Colorado

In 2019, Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act was passed and signed into law, effective January 21, 2021. During its first year, as the only US state with such a law, software engineer Aaron Batilos noticed that the rising need for remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic was overwhelmingly excluding the state of Colorado. He started a website, coloradoexcluded.com, which found hundreds of companies, including Nike, Airbnb, Spotify, and PETA, were excluding Colorado from hiring to avoid posting salary ranges. In July 2022, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) warning companies with a presence in Colorado that they were required to comply or face fines of $10,000 per violation. Following CDLE's warning, the number of companies attempting to circumvent the law was drastically reduced.

New York

In December 2020, New York City passed Int. 1208-2018, which was signed into law in January 2021. The law was originally set to take effect on May 15, 2022, but was later delayed until November 1, 2022, after pushback from businesses resulted in amendments which limited the requirement to jobs which are physically located within the city limits. A state-wide bill, Senate Bill (SB) S9427, was passed June 3, 2022, but as of September 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul had not yet signed the bill into law.

Washington

During 2021–2022, software engineer Cher Scarlett lobbied for an amendment to Washington's Equal Pay and Opportunities Act of 2019, which previously only required employers to disclose salary ranges upon request and prohibited the practice of requesting a candidate's salary history. SB 5761 expanded the salary range requirement to all Washington job postings, and was signed into law on March 30, 2022, effective January 1, 2023. Scarlett called on the states of New York and California to enact similar laws to end the exclusion of Colorado workers from job postings.

California

In February 2022, Senator Monique Limón introduced SB 1162. It was passed on August 30, 2022, and signed into law September 27, 2022, effective January 1, 2023. Additionally, under the 2022 amendment, employers with 100 or more employees must also submit an annual pay data report to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

References

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