Abstract
Do you compensate your employees fairly?
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- 1.
Intentional discrimination is referred to in the legal lexicon as disparate treatment, which is discussed in Chapter 2.
- 2.
Unintentional discrimination is referred to in the legal lexicon as disparate impact, which is discussed in Chapter 2.
- 3.
“National War Labor Board: Its Establishment and Historical Setting,” in War Labor Reports, vol. 1, Bureau of National Affairs, 1942.
- 4.
War Labor Reports, National War Labor Board, 1945.
- 5.
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (No. 05-1074), 421 F.3d 1169.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
The implications for employers of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 are discussed in detail in Chapter 8.
- 9.
Remarks by President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 27, 2010.
- 10.
At the time of its creation, the interagency group was known as the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force. In 2012, however, the group referred to itself as the Equal Pay Task Force. See, for example, “Equal Pay Task Force Accomplishments,” White House, April 2012, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/equal_pay_task_force.pdf .
- 11.
The pilot program is discussed in detail in Chapter 8.
- 12.
Interpretive Standards for Systemic Compensation Discrimination and Voluntary Guidelines for Self-Evaluation of Compensation Practices under Executive Order 11246; Notice of Proposed Rescission, 76 Federal Register, January 3, 2011.
- 13.
The rescission of the Guidelines and the proposed compensation data collection are discussed in detail in Chapter 8.
- 14.
Occupational segregation, particularly by gender, is discussed in detail in Chapter 9.
- 15.
S. 788: Fair Pay Act of 2011, H.R. 1493: Fair Pay Act of 2011.
- 16.
S. 168: Fair Pay Act of 2013
- 17.
S. 168: The Paycheck Fairness Act, H.R. 438: The Paycheck Fairness Act.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Studies indicate that the average cost to a company of defending an employment practices claim in litigation is approximately $250,000. This estimate is exclusive of any damages, fines, or penalties assessed in the event the company is found liable.
- 20.
Statement by Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on Equal Pay Day, April 17, 2012, available at www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA20120751.htm .
- 21.
David Morgan, Westpac CEO, quoted in “Fulfilling the Promise: Closing the Pay Gap for Women and Minorities in Colorado,” Colorado Pay Equity Commission, March 2008 ( www.coworkforce.com/PayEquityReport.pdf ).
- 22.
“Case Studies in Equal Pay for Women,” U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, D-16, September 1951.
- 23.
Marie-Thérèse Chicha, “A Comparative Analysis of Promoting Pay Equity: Models and Impacts,” working paper, International Labour Organization, 2006.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Sebastiaan Rothmann and Sebastiaan Rothmann Jr., “Factors Associated with Employee Engagement in South Africa,” South African Journal of Industrial Psychology 36(2) (2010); doi: 10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925.
- 26.
This is a potential area for future research. It is likely, however, that the magnitude of these relationships will be sensitive to a variety of external factors (e.g., individual firm performance, the overall economic climate).
- 27.
As discussed in Chapter 9, the 77 cents statistic is a misleading comparison of average rates of pay by gender, because it does not consider differences by gender in factors such as occupation, industry, hours worked, compensation expectations and willingness to negotiate, and the role of personal choices.
- 28.
Differences in average pay rates by race are typically mentioned as a footnote to differences in average pay rates by gender (e.g., “women earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, and the difference is even larger for women of color”).
- 29.
John D. Podesta, “Preface,” in The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything—A Study by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, ed. Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary, October 2009, pp. i–iii; available at www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2009/10/16/6789/the-shriver-report/ .
- 30.
When discussing this point in past lectures and presentations, I have often used the following analogy: “stating that you oppose equal pay for women is like saying you hate kids with cancer—it’s not a popular position to take.”
- 31.
It should be noted that white males are also protected by equal pay laws. The laws are written to prevent discrimination on the basis of gender or race and ethnicity and do not state that only women or racial minorities are covered under the laws. For example, if a man is paid less than a woman solely because he is a man, the employer could be found liable for gender discrimination. Similarly, if an employee is paid less because he is white, the employer could be found liable for race discrimination.
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© 2013 Stephanie R. Thomas
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Thomas, S.R. (2013). Why Equity in Compensation Matters. In: Compensating Your Employees Fairly. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-5042-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-5042-5_1
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