The+Equal+Pay+Act+of+1963

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=THE EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963=

An overview
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was approved by John F. Kennedy. For many years prior to the approval, employers had payed their female employees smaller wages than the males who were doing similar jobs. Before the act was passed, the average woman worker of the early 1960’s only earned about 60 percent of the earnings of the average man. The Equal Pay Act prohibited the discrimination of employees based on their gender. It gave female workers more protection against all of this discrimination in the workplace, for they now had the same rights as the men. However, there still needs to be more enforcement before the working women truly have equality to men.

An excerpt regarding women in the workplace
"(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."