Laws Of The Equal Pay Act example essay topic

Chapter 1: The Scenario The story begins at a local Wal-Mart super center, its Friday, payday. As employees open their paychecks they are awaiting their annual raise. As one employee, Sue opens up her paycheck she finds she has not yet received a raise; she has waited all year for this raise. She is very sad to find she did not receive one, she begins to think maybe she did something wrong. She starts to think back through the year, and can not seem to come up with any solutions as to why she did not receive one.

She really felt she worked especially hard that year in hopes to receive a good raise and really felt she deserved to be recognized for it. In the break room she overhears John, her follow co-worker, bragging to their colleague's about his second raise. Now John is making $1.25 more per hour than her even though they both have been working at Wal-Mart for two years. They both have the same job descriptions and titles so there should not be differences in their pay. Sue can not quite understand why he received two when she only received one. She has seen him numerous times being tardy for work or calling in sick.

She knows she is a better worker and is more efficient. Sue recently took a human resource class at Buffalo State College and she remembers learning about a law regarding equal pay. She can't seem to recall the specifics, so she is determined to look into it further and fix the problem. Chapter 2 Sue: The Victim Sue is a 35 year old divorcee and mother of two young children. For the past ten years or so she has been doing similar work in retail that pays mediocre wages and that have given her good benefits. About two years ago Sue got was laid off from her last job.

She applied at many different entry-level positions, as she has no other experience. She does not receive a lot of child support from her ex-husband so Sue relies on the income she brings in to support her and her two children. When Wal-Mart called Sue for an interview, she was so relieved and excited about the opportunity. Wal-Mart hired Sue; she was told that she would start above minimum because of her ten years experience in the field.

She was also told that all full-time employees, based upon work performance, receive an annual raise of a dollar each year of their employment. Sue also received a 401 k plan. Sue was excited, she hoped to slowly work her way up, maybe even into a management position, and perhaps even further over the next years that she would be working at Wal-Mart. She knew she was a dedicated and hard worker, who learned fast and enjoyed her work. The following year, Sue received her annual raise, but it was for only $. 75 instead of a dollar, but she was told that all employees received the same because of budget needs.

Sue noticed that most of her female coworkers got the $. 75 raise but when asked by some of the male workers, they responded they received the whole dollar raise. Sue knew there had to be a good explanation for this. When she approached management, they told her that she would receive her next annual raise of $1.25, to compensate for the 25 cent loss, but that all the employees that were only employed for one year received the same treatment. Sue was happy with her work and loved the people so she trusted upper management with their response.

The following year Sue waited for the annual raise, and never received one, but found out that many, or perhaps even all, the male employees received their $1.00 annual raise. Sue was furious. She desperately needs her pay, to help with her children. She does not live in the best part of town and her tiny house she resides in continually has leakage problems that she needs to quickly get fixed, but cannot because of the lack of money she is receiving at her job at Wal-Mart. Sue cannot afford to start all over again at another job with no promises that another company will hire her right away. Sue wants to take action, but it unsure how.

So she decides to further investigate the case of Equal Pay by going to a library to search more about it. Chapter 3: The Library When Sue arrives at the library she begins her search. She finds out that the federal Equal Pay act has been on the books for nearly 40 years however it is little known and underutilized. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has great potential to redress wage discrimination because it says comparable work and responsibility require equal pay.

Sue was outraged by her finding at work, regarding her co-workers higher compensation. Sue knew there was more she could do, she started searching the internet. She knew that was a great place to find information about situations like hers. Multiple results were found on the internet, but the most influential was from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Here she found the information she had been looking for, all the terms definitions and guidelines of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. As she was reading the organizations website she discovered that The Equal Pay Act was intended to ensure the American citizens rights in obtaining equal pay and other employment related benefits for equal work.

Sue thought to herself that this law was proving an injustice at her work place. The Equal Pay Act is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and requires full wages and other benefits for equal skill and responsibility, performed under similar working conditions. The law only requires the jobs to be substantially equal and thus, employers must be particularly aware of the issue of comparable work and pay. While Sue is reading the laws of the Equal Pay Act she learns of the abuse of pay Wal-Mart is involved with.

Sue feels that this is a good starting point in researching this law. She remembers a little more about what her human resource teacher lectured a class about and decides to dig deeper. The next site she goes to, she reads, that to prohibit discrimination on account of sex and the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. Be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, this discrimination is deemed unconstitutional. Knowing she has a case against Wal-Mart for unequal pay she decides to figure out how to go about resolving this incident in a court of law. While reading about ways to create a court case against Wal-Mart she finds a site that helps her on her way.

On the site she reads, the administration or designated representatives may investigate and gather data regarding the wages, hours, and other conditions in practices in employment in any industry. They may enter and inspect such places and such records, and question employees and investigate the facts presented. She debates if she should take legal action against her employer. While Sue continues on in her findings she discovers that the law has a few exceptions.

The exceptions to this law would be when payments are made pursuant to seniority or by a merit system. A merit system measures earning by quality or quantity of production, or a difference based on any other factor other than sex. Also any employee employed, by amusement or recreational establishment that does not operate for more than seven months in a calendar year. Any employee employed in an agriculture that works more than five hundred man days.

Also any person employed as a seaman on a vessel other than American vessels. Employees hired on a casual basis, in domestic service such as babysitting or provide companionship for individuals who are unable to care for themselves, will be exempt from the Equal Pay Act of 1963. A librarian helps Sue research the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Sue explains to her the whole situation that is occurring at her workplace and lets her know she is looking up possible ways to take legal action against Wal-Mart. The librarian tells sue to look at the Lexis Nexus database, and also informs Sue about her brother, Dave, who is a Lawyer and specializes in workers compensation. The librarian offers Sue Dave's phone number in case she would want to contact him regarding her situation.

After talking with the librarian, Sue decides to check out the Lexis Nexus database, which is a site that allows you to look up court cases from the past, it also tells the verdict of the case. Here she types in Equal Pay Act of 1963 and a list is generated of court cases regarding this law. While sue was filtering out the good and bad cases, she found one that was close to the same situations she was being faced with at Wal-Mart. The situation took place in Lynn Massachusetts. The case had to do with house workers who cleaned the local public school. The women asserted that they perform essentially the same work as "junior building custodians", mostly men.

However the women did it for $1.50 per hour less than their male counterparts. Also most of the women did the job without the benefit of permanent status and benefits. When the case originated, the base salary was $11.58 per hour for the house cleaners and $13.08 for junior janitors. In the reading of this case Sue found out that nationwide, women generally earn.

75 cents for every dollar a man earns. The Lynn public schools could do little to defend itself against the claim that was first filed in 1998 by the twenty three house workers. Just before the case was to go to trial it was settled in an out-of-court agreement that awarded the plaintiffs four hundred thousand dollars, and also gave the twenty three women permanent job status. Sue read on to find out that the case made a tremendous difference in the women's lives. They may still be scrubbing toilets, but at the end of a day their paychecks are just as big as those of the male junior building custodians working next to them. Sue was so happy she made the trip to the library.

She knew she had a case against Wal-Mart and now she was prepared to defend herself and take action. Chapter 4: Confronting Wal-Mart Now that Sue was prepared with the knowledge of the Equal Pay Act, she was ready to confront Wal-Mart. She had already discussed the situation with Dave, the lawyer, and he told Sue exactly what to do. He told her to approach Wal-Mart management and demand a raise and her back pay.

He also told her, that she has the power and knowledge from her extensive research on the Equal Pay Act. She was aware of her legal option and was ready to leverage her demands. The following day Sue was armed with a list of rules that the company had violated, as well as a list of regulations taken from the Equal Pay Act. She also provided a list of reasonable demands of which Wal-Mart should and must abide by to avoid legal repercussions. As she stormed into the management office, the staff had a puzzled looks on their faces.

She walked right into Mr. Bill's office, the head administrator, and slammed the door closed. She showed him the list of rules and regulations that consist of the Equal Pay Act. She explained to him that they were in violation of the act. She did not receive her raise, and she had overheard many male workers discussing their raises. He denied any accusations of this nature, he said it was coincidental and had nothing to do with the fact she was female.

As she walked out she said "you will hear from my lawyer Dave". Chapter 5: The Court Day Wal-Mart did hear from Dave, they were being sued for violated The Equal Pay Act which is fully explained under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Wal-Mart would regret their decisions about not compensating their employees equally. They court was full of employees supporting Sue and prepared to fight for their rights. So the crowd built up outside as things heated up inside. The judge walked in and the case began.

Sue presented her case to the courtroom and Wal-Mart attempted to defend themselves. The courtroom was awaiting the result, as the judge told the jury it was time to make the decision. So the jury exited the room and began to ponder the evidence that was put before them. So hours passed and they made their decision, and the verdict was...

Chapter 6: The Decision The verdict was in favor of Sue! The crowd cheered in excitement. The jury had decided that based on The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) she would receive $45,000 for her losses. In addition to the fee Wal-Mart owed to Sue they were also fined 10,000 for the violation.

The court also said that pay disparities for women not only violate the Equal Pay Act and Title VII but also conflict directly with sound business judgment. Women make tremendous contributions in today's economy, and companies that fail to review stale pay practices will find themselves unable to retain these valuable employees as well as risk being in breach of the federal civil rights laws. It should be encouraged that all employers closely examine their salary policies in order to identify and voluntarily eliminate pay discrepancies based solely on gender. Chapter 7: Sue's New Lifestyle After winning her court case and receiving her deserved compensation Sue found another job that would ensure she would never be discriminated by pay again. Sue is a manager at Victoria's Secret where she feels more comfortable around women like her, and most important of all she is treated the way she should be. Sue also used some of her settlement money to move into a nicer place.

She is much happier in an apartment that does not have any water leaks and her children are safer and better cared for. Sue spends her spare time as an advocate for women's rights. In the end Sue is glad that she spoke up against her mistreatment, and has helped several other women with similar situations where they did not have the courage to speak up. this paper is in the form of a story on the equal pay act.