One of the standout moments at the Oscars was actress Patricia Arquette’s call for pay equality – calling for equal pay for equal work. While accepting an award, Arquette spoke out, stating “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights,” she proclaimed. “It is our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America!”
An important piece of her speech was that she included “every woman who gave birth” highlighting the wage inequalities facing mothers in particular.
The Equal Pay Act is part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (FLSA), “prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions.”
The equal pay act was enacted in 1963, however a pay discrepancy still exists in pay rates for men and women. According to statistics, women make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes, but woman who are never married and don’t have kids make 5 percent less than single men.
Recent attempts in the senate to bridge the pay gap have been blocked – last fall a bill failed that would have prohibited employers from retaliating against employees for disclosing their wages, and allow workers to sue over wage discrimination.
For more information, or if you believe that you have been unfairly denied the pay you rightfully deserve, please contact the top Atlanta equal pay attorneys at Buckley Beal LLP for an immediate consultation.