Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Wage rate differentials exist between equivalent jobs segregated by sex, race, and national origin in Government employment and in industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. Discrimination in hiring and promotion has played a role in maintaining a segregated workforce. Many women and people of color work in occupations dominated by individuals of their same sex, race, and national origin. While a wage rate differential exists in nearly every occupational field, traditionally male jobs tend to pay better than traditionally female jobs which require equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.
Traditionally male jobs that are low-wage require less skill, education, and certifications than traditionally female jobs that are low-wage, despite their generally receiving higher pay. In 2015, a woman in the United States working in a full-time, year-round job earned 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man working in a full-time, year-round job. The wage gap is larger when the data is disaggregated by race. Among women who hold full-time, year-round jobs in the United States, African-American women were paid on average, only 63 percent of what White men were paid in 2015, while Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander women were paid 60 percent, American Indian and Alaska Native women were paid 58 percent, and Hispanic and Latina women were paid only 54 percent.
The gender pay gap persists across educational levels. As a result, women who complete college degrees are less able to pay off their student loans promptly, leaving them paying more and for a longer time than men. In 2012, among students who graduated in 2007–2008, women working full-time had paid off 33 percent of their student loan debt on average, while men working full-time had paid off 44 percent of their debt. In the United States, mothers are primary or sole breadwinners in nearly 40 percent of families.
Yet the wage gap for mothers is larger than for women overall. According to 2013 data, mothers employed full-time, year round are paid 71 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. It is worse for single mothers with full-time, year-round jobs, who are paid just 58 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. A conservative estimate is that women employed in the United States lose a combined total of nearly $500 billion every year due to the wage gap. These women, their families, businesses and the economy suffer as a result.
Lost wages mean families have less money to save for the future or to spend on basic goods and services—spending that helps drive the economy. Statistical analysis shows that 62 percent of the wage gap can be attributed to occupational and industry differences; differences in experience and education; and factors such as race, region and unionization. That leaves 38 percent of the gap unaccounted for, leading researchers to conclude that factors such as discrimination and unconscious bias continue to affect women’s wages.
The existence of such wage rate differentials— depresses wages and living standards for employees necessary for their health and efficiency; prevents the maximum utilization of the available labor resources; tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce; burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; constitutes an unfair method of competition; and contributes to poor living conditions, poor nutrition, and fewer opportunities for families with children under 18 where the mother is the sole or primary breadwinner.
Section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 prohibits discrimination in compensation for equal work on the basis of sex. Artificial barriers to the elimination of discrimination in compensation based upon sex, race, and national origin continue to exist more than five decades after the passage of section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( 42 U.S.C. 2000a et seq. ). Elimination of such barriers would have positive effects.
Problems in the economy created by discrimination through wage rate differentials would be reduced. In 2012, the U.S. economy would have produced additional income of $447.6 billion if women received equal pay; this represents 2.9 percent of 2012 gross domestic product. Fewer working women and people of color would earn low wages, thereby reducing dependence on public assistance. The total increase in women’s earnings with pay equity represents more than 14 times what the Federal and State governments spent in fiscal year 2012 on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
Working family members earning a fair rate of pay would encourage stable families and reduce poverty. The poverty rate for all working women would be cut in half, falling to 3.9 percent from 8.1 percent. The very high poverty rate for working single mothers would fall by nearly half, from 28.7 percent to 15.0 percent, and two-thirds would receive a pay increase.
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