Equal Pay Act of 1963

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Equal Pay Act of 1963

Legislation

By: Edith Green and Edith Rogers

Date: June 10, 1963

Source: Equal Pay Act of 1963. Public Law 88-38. 29 U.S. Code Sec. 206(d).

About the Author: Representative Edith Green, a Democrat from Oregon, first crafted the Equal Pay bill in 1955 with co-author Edith Rogers, a Republican congresswoman from Massachusetts. Green served ten terms in the House of Representatives for the state of Oregon, while Rogers served thirty-five years for Massachusetts, the longest tenure of any woman representative. Rogers died in 1960, before the equal Pay Act was signed into law.

INTRODUCTION

The issue of equal pay legislation in the United States dates back to 1868, when newspapers such as The Revolution, published by women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, advocated equal pay for equal work, an eight-hour work day, and the inclusion of women in labor unions. The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment that same year, with its "equal protection" clause, inspired activists in search of equitable treatment for minorities and women.

World War I and, especially, World War II changed society's view of women as industrial workers. With the war industry experiencing sharp increases in labor needs at the same time that men were needed in the military, the U.S. government itself pushed to change the perception of factory work for women. The National War Labor Board recommended that men and women be paid equal wages during the war, and collective female labor experiences during the war years engineered social change in the coming decades.

Opponents of equal pay for equal work argued that federal laws were unnecessary. By 1963, over twenty states had laws on the books protecting equal pay, and corporate opponents of a federal law maintained that such laws were a matter for states, and not the federal government, to decide. In many states, women already enjoyed labor protections through legally mandated break periods that were longer or more frequent than those for men and shorter work days. In addition, opponents of equal pay legislation pointed to the expansion of federal bureaucracy necessary for the enforcement of any labor laws applying to women. Employers also noted the expense of creating separate restroom and changing facilities for women. According to opponents, the economics of equal pay would impose a financial burden on employers.

The persistent belief that a man should be the "provider" for his family, while his wife managed the domestic sphere fed the argument for lower wages for women. Many opponents of equal pay laws believed that single women needed less money because most of these women still lived with their parents, while married women should be housewives and mothers rather than working outside the home. The concept of a masculine "family wage" drove the cultural argument surrounding the wage gap.

Finally, opponents cited higher rates of absenteeism for female workers caused in part by pregnancy, child care issues, and medical concerns. This absenteeism, combined with existing state laws giving women more accommodations, made female workers a more expensive form of labor. Equal pay critics argued that paying women less was only fair, on balance, in light of these issues.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Commission on the Status of Women, which investigated issues of women's employment, health, education, and legal status. Chaired by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Commission issued a report in 1963 with recommendations to improve the status of women in the United States, including such measures as anti-discrimination legislation, paid maternity and family leave, and access to affordable childcare. Indeed, 1963 became a transformative year for women's rights in America—the Commission on the Status of Women, the Equal Pay Act, and Betty Friedan's feminist book The Feminine Mystique all appeared during that year.

PRIMARY SOURCE

AN ACT

To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. June 10, 1963 [S. 1409].

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Equal Pay Act of 1963."

DECLARATION OF PURPOSE

SEC. 2. (a) The Congress hereby finds that the existence in industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce of wage differentials based on sex—.

(1) depresses wages and living standards for employees necessary for their health and efficiency;

(2) prevents the maximum utilization of the available labor resources;

(3) tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce;

(4) burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; and

(5) constitutes an unfair method of competition.

(b) It is hereby declared to be the policy of this Act, through exercise by Congress of its power to regulate commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, to correct the conditions above referred to in such industries.

SEC. 3. Section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (29 U.S.C. et seq.), is amended by adding thereto a new subsection (d) as follows: Discrimination prohibited. 52 Stat. 1062; 63 Stat. 912.

(d)(1) No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex: Provided, That an employer who is paying a wage rate differential in violation of this subsection shall not, in order to comply with the provisions of this subsection, reduce the wage rate of any employee. 29 USC 206.

(2) No labor organization, or its agents, representing employees of an employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall cause or attempt to cause such an employer to discriminate against an employee in violation of paragraph (1) of this subsection.

(3) For purposes of administration and enforcement, any amounts owing to any employee which have been withheld in violation of this subsection shall be deemed to be unpaid minimum wages or unpaid overtime compensation under this Act.

(4) As used in this subsection, the term 'labor organization' means any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work. "Labor organization."

SEC. 4. The amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of one year from the date of its enactment: Provided, That in the case of employees covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement in effect at least thirty days prior to the date of enactment of this Act, entered into by a labor organization (as defined in section 6(d)(4) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended), the amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon the termination of such collective bargaining agreement or upon the expiration of two years from the date of enactment of this Act, whichever shall first occur. Effective date.

Approved June 10, 1963, 12:00.

SIGNIFICANCE

Proponents of equal pay legislation made one basic argument: equal pay for equal work. If a woman could do the same work that a man could perform, as women had shown themselves capable of doing during the wars, then she should be paid the same wage, regardless of marital status or gender. In 1955, Edith Rogers and Edith Green co-authored the first version of the Equal Pay Act; it passed in 1963, three years after Rogers' death. In 1963, the average working woman earned 59 cents for every dollar that the average working man earned.

Within seven years of the passage of the Equal Pay Act, forty states passed state-level versions of the Act. In the year following the passage of the Equal Pay Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to protect workers from discrimination based on sex and race.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 taken together provided stronger legal protections to women than ever before, but, in the coming decade, a cluster of laws and government actions granted women greater access to rights previously available to men only. President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Executive Order 11375 ordered federal agencies to provide women with equal access to employment and educational opportunities; the 1972 Title IX law banned sex discrimination in schools; and the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act required equal access to credit and financial services regardless of sex, marital status, race, age, or national origin.

Women's rights activist groups such as the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Political Caucus, and publications, such as Ms. Magazine, championed the labor rights of women. Workplace equity became the central tenet of the women's movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, feeding into the push for an Equal Rights Amendment as well.

As other protections, including prohibitions against firing pregnant women and laws against sexual harassment, became standard practice in the American labor force, the wage gap gradually diminished. As of 2004, the average working woman earned 80 cents for every dollar that the average working man earned.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Becker, Susan D. The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment: American Feminism Between the Wars. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981.

Cobble, Dorothy Sue. The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Felder, Deborah G. A Century of Women: The Most Influential Events in Twentieth-Century Women's History. New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 1999.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Stetson, Dorothy M. Women's Rights in the U.S.A: Policy Debates and Gender Roles. New York: Routledge, 2004.