Federal Employment Laws That Impact Compensation and Benefits

Gender Based Pay Differentials

Equal Pay Act

The Equal Pay Act of 1963, or EPA, is an amendment to the FLSA, administered by the EEOC. It prohibits wage differentials between men and women employed by the same establishment in jobs that:

1. require equal skill, effort, and responsibility
2. are performed under similar working conditions

The EPA requires that all three factors (skill, effort, and responsibility) are substantially equal for the jobs to be judged equal. Likewise, working conditions must differ significantly if pay differentials are to be justified. Note that the comparisons are with job content and not with job titles.

EPA provisions specifically approve some conditions as justifying pay differences when they result from legitimate pay practices such as:

• seniority systems
• merit systems
• production systems related to quantity or quality.

For example, Firewomen entered the firefighting profession after a time when most incumbents in the profession were men. If a Fire Department’s pay practice is based on a seniority system we would naturally see a justified gender differential due to this workforce trend and legitimate seniority pay system (all things being equal).