In 1963, a federal law was passed known as The Equal Pay Act. It mandated that employers pay men and women equally for doing the same work; equal pay for equal work. To successfully file a claim under this act, you must show that you and an employee of the opposite sex are working in the same place, doing equal work, and receiving unequal pay. On the surface it’s simple enough, and seemly pretty clear in its intent.
However, like so much of our legislation it has been basically unenforced, and so many loop holes have been utilized to avoid compliance that little has changed for the plight of our country’s female work force. As a matter of fact if an employer can show wage disparity has what is termed “a legitimate basis,” like more seniority or experience, claims can be denied.
A recent sampling of some of the largest CEO salaries paid by large corporations to men vs. women serves as a stark example of just how blatant wage discrimination still exists today. The list includes the following male CEOs: Chad Richardson, Paycom Software, $211.1 million; Robert Kotick, Activision Blizzard, $154.6 million; Leonard S. Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $134.6 million; Larry Culp, General Electric, $72.7 million, and Shantanu Narayen, Adobe, $34.9 million.
Female CEOs highest salaries included: Lisa T. Su, Advanced Micro Devices, $27.1 million; Mary T. Barra, General Motors, $23.2 million; Kathy J. Warren, Northrop Grumman, $19.7 million; Phebe N. Novakovic, General Dynamics, $18.9 million, and Gail K. Boudreaux, Anthem, $17.1 million.
Now some might use the “loophole” argument that these divergent gaps in salaries don’t take into account “seniority.” Do you really think that all the seniority in the world could close the gap between the highest male salary of $211.1 million vs the highest female salary of $27.1 million? I wager to guess, that even if the female CEO stayed in her job until she was 100 years old, she would never close the $184 million pay gap.
Sadly, we live in a state with one of the largest salary gaps in the nation. In Louisiana women make about 74 cents for every dollar a male earns. Equal pay legislation for private businesses has failed repeatedly in our state
In April of this year, Democrats tried to address this problem once again at the federal level by approving legislation that hey claimed would help close the gap between what men and women are paid in the workplace. The bill would make it easier to sue employers over pay discrimination, curb the ability of companies to retaliate against those that raised the issue, and beef up enforcement of existing laws, including a new requirement that large businesses submit detailed pay data to the federal government for use in policing pay discrimination laws. It would also ban employers from prohibiting employees from discussing their salaries.
Republicans opposed this legislation citing laws (The Equal Pay Act) are already on the books outlawing pay discrimination. They also countered that the bill would largely be a boon to trial lawyers looking to sue companies while subjecting employers to burdensome new reporting requirements that would mandate them to submit detailed pay information to the federal government. They refused to even negotiate or submit an amended version of the legislation.
One has to wonder how much longer “the boys club” in our Congress and state legislatures will continue to call the shots and keep the restrictive yokes in place to prevent women from being recognized as their equals in job abilities. Guess this is just one more sign of the male insecurity and their fear of losing “societal control.” God forbid we should ever have a majority of female legislators or worse a female president.
