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The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was an important milestone in the fight for equal pay. It was the first federal law that specifically required employers to pay men and women in the same job the same wages. The law was signed into effect by President John F. Kennedy, just before his assassination.
The Equal Pay Act was a response to decades of gender-based pay discrimination in the workplace. Women generally earned significantly less than men for doing the same job. The goal of the Act was to remove the gender bias in wages and promote equal access to employment opportunities.
The Act accomplished this goal by outlawing any employment practices that discriminated against women on the basis of their gender. This included not paying them the same amount of money as men doing the same job, as well as imposing different expectations or requirements on women.
The Equal Pay Act didn’t just affect wages. It also changed the way employers classified jobs. Before the law, they tended to label roles as “male” or “female” and pay accordingly. Now, they must classify jobs according to their skills and duties, and base their pay decisions on those factors rather than gender.
The Equal Pay Act also affected how employers decide which workers to hire. Before the law, it was common to hire men and women for different roles based on gender, even when their skills and qualifications were the same. Now, employers must consider all applicants equally regardless of gender.
The Equal Pay Act did a great deal to improve equality in the workplace, but it still fell short of true gender equality. In many cases, men and women continue to be paid unequally even when they’re doing the same job. This makes the law an important but incomplete step towards gender equality.
