Baby, We've Come A Long Way
How have we progressed so far?
What has changed in the past few years?
On April 9, 2013, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which President John F. Kennedy declared to be the end of the “unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job” when he signed it.
FAMILY & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires that all employers with 50 or more employees provide up to 12 weeks of annual unpaid family and medical leave to their workers. Among other things, family leave enables parents to care for a child after birth or adoption. Typically, workers take only short leaves under FMLA, e.g., in 2000 the typical leave was 10 days, and 90 percent of employees using the policy took 12 weeks or less (Waldfogel, 2001).
A major limitation of FMLA is that it ensures only unpaid leave, and many people cannot afford to take time off without pay. Only 8 percent of private sector employers provide paid leave (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). While disability insurance covers some workers, only 22 percent of families have access to paid leave of four weeks or more (Gornick & Meyers, 2003).
LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT
Obama created the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009.
This new act stated that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action. The law directly addressed Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007), a U.S. Supreme Court decision that the statute of limitations for presenting an equal-pay lawsuit begins on the date that the employer makes the initial discriminatory wage decision, not at the date of the most recent paycheck.
What STILL needs to change for the Pay Gap to become a thing of the past:
Progress will take 45 years if we continue stalling. This is a matter of urgency. Progress is only progress with continued efforts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/women-and-equal-pay-wage-gap_n_3038806.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/gender-pay-gap-2012_n_2676944.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/02/14/gender-pay-gap-wider-2012-and-its-great-for-women/
AND WEBSITES LIKE THIS only add confusion to the "cause" of the pay gap. In Dey and Hill's Behind the Pay Gap research PDF from 2007, they specifically vanquish the idea that the pay gap is not gender inequality and instead is an outcome of women's choice in majors.
Through meticulous research and statistics, Dey and Hill have shown that It is not a woman's choice to be paid less, and regardless of what occupation she chooses, the pay should be equal between men and women within each choice.