...The case of Ms. Kate is in violation of the EPA. “The Equal Pay Act (EPA) 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 condition” (“EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963 AND LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2009,” n.d). The issue I see is one male was hired in at $10,000 more salary than Ms. Kate; even though Ms. Kate does not have a PhD she has six years of experience in this line of work and also has her “Master’s in Social Work (MSW), a terminal degree that, as a credential, has far more external marketability than the degrees possessed by the two new hires” (Thorne, Ferrell, & Ferrell, 2011). Her job duties require more than what the other two men that have a higher degree....
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...for other purposes” or, as it is more commonly known, “The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009” was the inaugural act for President Barack Obama to sign into law. Though the act is a short three pages, the policy and events that led to the creation of the law were contentious and complicated and spanned...
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...Summary of Law According to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, women in the US are paid 77 cents to every dollar that men are paid (The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, 2009). African-American women on the other hand, earn 64 cents for every dollar, while Latina women earn 55 cents per dollar earned by men. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) was created to require that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). The forms of pay are also covered by this law and include salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, etc. (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Unfortunately, today we still experience the unfair practice of unequal pay. To address this issue, in 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The purpose of this act was to restore the discrimination caused by the ruling in the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co case (The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, 2009). The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act gives individuals the power to challenge pay discrimination and forces employers to eliminate any discriminatory pay practices (The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, 2009). Relevance & Importance The issue of wage gap and discrimination is one that not only affects women globally, but it also affects the economy in the United States. The Center for American Progress published an article explaining the varying reasons why Equal Pay is important...
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...Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plan in Alabama from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. She was an area manager and initially her starting salary was similar to her male counterparts, however as time went the pay discrepancy between Lilly and 15 male managers was obvious. Lilly Ledbetter was paid $3,727 a month were the lowest paid male area manager was earning $4,286 per month and the highest male was paid $5,236 a difference of approximately $1,500. Lilly’s initiated a lawsuit against Goodyear immediately after her retirement. This claim was denied by the Supreme Court because she did not file suit 180 days from her first pay check even though she did not know of the discrepancy at that time. Subsequently, the 111th U.S. Congress passed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” in 2009 to loosen the timeliness requirements for filling a suit so long as the act of discrimination occurs with 180 days of the filing of the discrimination suit. There had been rumors that pay had been different between men and women but of course there had been a rule that you were not to discuss what you made with anyone that you work with. On one particular day Lilly went in to work and wait to her mail cupboard to find an anonymous note showing four names with a dollar amount next to it. One of the names was herself and...
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...ruled that the tests did not pertain to applicant’s ability to perform the job. This case was pivotal to the workforce because people started taking the EEO more seriously. It helped with all aspects in HR, this case embraced the disparate impact which knocked down the barriers of equal opportunity employment. It set a foundation of how we should hire people and what is a fair acceptable way of doing recruiting. Harris v forklift system Inc. Teresa Harris was a manger for forklift systems, Inc. She had serval times been harassed by her president, Charles Hardy. She had been insulted on several occasions in front of other employees. After, promising that the harassment would end, Hardy comments got even worse. The courts saw this as fair unlikely grounds for a sexual suit. This plays an important part in HR because sexual harassment is very big issue in the workplace. This case really shows that one person can’t define harassment, it’s different in everyone’s eyes. Taxman V. Piscataway Board of Education The school had to lay off an employee. The board had a choice between two individuals Sharon Taxman a white teacher and Debra Williams a minority teacher. After taking into consideration all the qualifications and seniority (Both had the same date of hire) the board decided to release Taxman due to previse issues with discrimination and wanting to avoid issues. Taxman opened a case in 1989 for only keeping the other teacher because of her race. To avoid...
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...the Lilly Ledbetter case. Pay discrimination. Equal pay for equal work. Lilly’s employer short changed her pay, her overtime and her retirement, She was getting 40% less than male co- workers. 2. What laws were responsive (prior law) to the issues involved in the Lilly Ledbetter case? In 1963, John F. Kennedy signed into law pay equity, equal pay for equal work for women and minorities and previous law of Title VII in 1964. 3. How was the Lilly Ledbetter case resolved? Ledbetter lost her gender pay discrimination lawsuit gainst Goodyear after the Supreme Court ruled she did not file a complaint on time. The Supreme Court ruled, in a five-to-four decision against Ledbetter stating that she should have filed a complaint within six months of the company’s first decision to pay her less, and took away two years’ of her back pay. 4. What does the Lilly Ledbetter Act say about Fair Pay for the same work. It restored The Equal Pay Act (EPA) which 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. 5. What is your reaction to this case, are you surprised that the mindset reflected in the CEO's comments to women professionals reflect old attitudes? It really upset me that women are still treated in this manner. Age old attitudes of women being inferior to men can still be found in many companies to date. Lilly is totally...
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...have been many reasons for the indifferences but none of them have been proven to be true. It is only now that it has become an issue for business due to the government regulations have now made it an ethical issue that has to be addressed or a business can be fined or shutdown if found not to be within the government standards. So the research question then becomes why management or companies continue to try to justify the need not to be regulated when it continues to be a problem within many organizations. Based on the history of this nation it was determined back in the 60’s that there were evidence that pay and benefits differences for women in similar jobs was not equal. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and reinforced later with the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009 which has given the government the tools to address the problems for businesses for now and the future. It stated that if male or female or in a similar job with the same set of skills required to perform it the pay and benefits must be the same. If there is evidence of sex based wage discrimination within the same company or organization the employee or government can open an investigation to see if any equal opportunity laws have been violated. Once it has been proven the company or establishment will be fined and order to pay all back pay the differences in pay and compensation. The next question to be answered is why try to pay different scales. The educated guess as to why business sometimes get this so wrong? Maybe...
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... Rights Gender & Equality Barbara Bradford Sept. 9, 2015 Instructor: Jennifer Moore-Ambrosia Southern New Hampshire University In the United States, women are allowed a certain level of luxury in having a large amount of control over the path they have taken. An American woman can be a business owner, a homeowner, a college graduate, a highly paid executive or a stay at home mother and wife. These are choices that we as individuals get to make with limited input from the men in our lives. We take guidance from our fathers, brothers and husbands but the ultimate decision lies with us. History shows us that this was not always the case in our country. Early on women were not allowed to own property, be educated or make any major decisions. Power rested in the hands of the men and it took many years to wrench some away. In the late 1800’s American women were beginning to realize that there was more to life then mothering and keeping house. The Suffragette movement was born out of a palpable desire to be a voice for change in the world and to that they could vote in the governance of the country. After many years of struggling, the 19th amendment was signed into law extending the right to vote so that it would not “be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (19th amendment). One step among many that leads to women gaining an equal...
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...Movement SS310 – Exploring the 1960’s: An Interdisciplinary Approach Unit 6 Project March 12, 2013 A Brief Timeline of the Women’s Movement 1920 - 2009 Sources cited on the reference page. In the United States, women are allowed a certain level of luxury in having a large amount of control over the path their lives take. An American woman can be a business owner, a homeowner, a college graduate, a highly paid executive or a stay at home mother and wife. These are choices that we as individuals get to make with limited input from the men in our lives. We take guidance from our fathers, brothers and husbands but the ultimate decision lies with us. History has shown us that this was not always the case in our country. Early on women were not allowed to own property, be educated or make any major decisions. Power rested in the hands of the men and it took many years to wrench some away. In the late 1800’s American women were beginning to realize that there was more to life then mothering and keeping house. The Suffragette movement was born out of a palpable desire to be a voice for change in the world and to have a vote in the governance of the country. After many years of struggling, the 19th amendment was signed into law extending the right to vote so that it would not “be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” (19th amendment). One step among many that leads to women gaining an equal voice in...
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...Sasha Klaeb WMST 101 7 May 2013 Assignment 4: Women and Work Question 1, The Glass Escalator: In “The Glass Escalator,” Christine Williams studies the way men are treated and their experiences when working in female dominated occupations, and finds that there exists a glass escalator for men working in these jobs. First, although Williams acknowledges that the proportion of men and women in the labor force is approaching parity, there still exists significant job segregation relating to gender. Both men and women are relegated to single sex occupations, meaning that they work in jobs that society deems more appropriate for men and women. What Williams does in this paper is different from other studies because rather than focusing on women in male dominated occupations and the barriers they face, she studies the underrepresentation of males in predominantly “female” occupations. She examines four typically female dominated occupations: nursing, librarianship, elementary school teaching and social work, and studies the implications of men working in female occupations. From these studies, she finds that unlike females in male dominated jobs, men do not face any discrimination and are in fact promoted and move up the ladder at a much faster pace than women. As one employee put it, there is a preference for men in these female occupations. Williams found that the more female dominated the job or specialty was, the greater the preference for men. The glass escalator...
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...Talking to government officials about the gender pay gap and making them aware that the pay gap between men and women is an issue is a good way to spread awareness of the gender pay gap, even if it is a narrow gap. For example, the Lilly Ledbetter Act was passed in 2009 and helped many women across the country easily file cases in court whenever they received an unfair paycheck. In the past, women had to report their unfair pay within 180 days of the first unfair paycheck they received and now women have 180 days of their last unfair paycheck to report their pay inequity (Taylor). Although it may be hard to talk to officials, a simple way to spread awareness of the gender pay gap is through social media campaigns such as Equal Pay Day. To reduce the gender pay gap, one must make others aware of the issue at hand (BE9). Equal Pay Day highlights how far into the next year the general population of women without variables considered would have to work in order to make the same amount as the average male population...
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...Imagine a woman over 60 years old who had to carry around huge, bulky tires and performed numerous other tiresome tasks, but still did not get the pay she deserved. In an infamous court case known as the Ledbetter v. Goodyear case, a 77-year-old woman named Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for paying her below the minimum wage for over 19 years. When Ledbetter first found out about this income discrimination, she was very stunned and said in an interview, “... I thought because Goodyear was a federal contractor they would be following the law. But that turned out not to be the case, and I couldn't find out.” Lilly Ledbetter was in a puzzled state after she found out that the company she worked for paid her below the minimum...
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...The Ledbetter vs. Goodyear case was brought to the courts by Lilly Ledbetter. She was on the verge of retirement at Goodyear after working as manager for 19 years. One day Lilly found a ripped paper that had her and four male co workers pay. She found that she was payed almost sixty cents for every dollar they made. Lilly brought this case to the court. The jury awarded her 3,514,417 dollars, but the law stopped the jury from awarding that much money to a case this size. She was to be given 300,000 dollars plus two years nondiscriminatory pay. The case was then brought to the 11th circuit court of appeals by Goodyear. Court of appeals only deals with lower court’s appeals. Anyone who loses can go to the court of appeals if they feel the ruling was unjust. The 11th circuit ruled in the favor of Goodyear, saying that Lilly missed the 180 day filing deadline. They stated that the 180 days time period started when she received her first paycheck, but Lilly didn’t know in her first 180 days. The case was now taken to the Supreme court. The case was no longer about if Lilly...
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...As society grows and changes, the problems it faces become different. However, one problem that has remained the same throughout the years is the inequality of women, more specifically the wage inequality. In her Brooklyn Rail article about Lilly Ledbetter, Alexis Clements writes that, in 1979 Lilly Ledbetter began to work as a manager at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber company in Gadsden, Alabama. Lilly was the only woman at the time working as a manager and her starting pay was equal to that of her male counterparts. After 19 years of working at Goodyear, she received an anonymous note informing her of the salary of three of her male coworkers and realized that she was making much less than them. Lilly was enraged when she began to think about...
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...environment to work rather than men (Akal Security Pays $1.62 Million To Settle EEOC Class Pregnancy Discrimination Claims, 2010). Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act bill Unequal pay is no more women problem it is a family problem. Kids and other members in the family are having hard time getting better education and medical care. In April of 2014, President Obama signed an Executive Order to prevent workplace discrimination and empower workers to take control over negotiations regarding their pay. In addition, he signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of Labor to require federal contractors to submit data on employee compensation by race and gender, helping employers take proactive efforts to ensure fair pay for their employees (Taking Action in Honor of National Equal Pay Day, 2014). Women today are paid, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. And the gap is even worse for women of color - African American women earn only 64 cents and Latina women earn only 55 cents for each dollar earned by males. To help address this unfair and unacceptable wage gap, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009. This Act took a dramatic change in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. case (Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, 2013). In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (2007) case, Ms. Ledbetter was given low ranking on her performance because of the fact that she was a working women. Other male employees were treated fairly...
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