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Equal Pay Act

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), making it illegal to pay different wages to employees of different sexes for equal work or jobs requiring equal skill, effort, or responsibility performed under similar working conditions. The act prohibits paying employees of one sex at a rate less than that paid to workers of the opposite sex for substantially equal work.

The act applies to employers in industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. It specifically covers elementary and secondary schools as well as institutions of higher education, regardless of whether they are public or private or are operated for profit or not for profit. Essentially, the act covers the same employees as the FLSA but, in addition, covers executives, administrators, and other professional employees who are normally exempted from the FLSA. In addition, the act covers most state and local government employees, unless they are specifically exempted from its provisions. While most cases under the act involve claims by females, it also protects men. Proof of discriminatory intent is not required in order to prevail on a claim under the act. This entry reviews the provisions of the Equal Pay Act and defenses to claims of discrimination in violation of the act. It then discusses the implementation of the act in higher education, particularly with respect to coaching, teaching, and other academic assignments.

Provisions of the Act

According to the act,

no employer having employees subject to any provision of [the Act] shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he paid wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

A fundamental premise of the act is the concept of “equal pay for equal work” performed by employees of either sex. In order to recover under the act, plaintiffs must prove that employers are paying or paid different wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work. The act defines equal work by stipulating that the performance of jobs must require “equal skill, effort and responsibility and which are performed under similar working conditions.” The term equal has been judicially defined as “substantially equal,” which means that the jobs being compared must be either “closely related” or “very much alike.”

In the face of an Equal Pay Act claim, plaintiffs must make appropriate comparisons of two jobs in light of all the circumstances. The focus of inquiries in evaluating whether jobs are substantially equal is on their overall job content. Courts typically look beyond job classifications, job titles, and job descriptions to the basic substance of the work being performed. Wages are differential when they are justified in order to compensate for appreciable variations in skill, effort, responsibility, or working conditions between otherwise comparable work activities. When claimants are able to establish common cores of tasks between two jobs, courts must consider whether any additional tasks make the jobs “substantially different.”

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