The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Equal Pay Act Turns 40

President Kennedy Signs the Equal Pay Act, June 10, 1963.

Forty years ago, on June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA) into law, paving the way for the long march toward equal opportunity in the workplace. At the time, full-time working women were paid on average 59 cents to the dollar earned by their male counterparts, according to government data.

At the White House signing ceremony, President Kennedy said the EPA:

"Adds to our laws another structure basic to democracy" and "affirms our determination that when women enter the labor force they will find equality in their pay envelope."

The EPA is the oldest workplace civil rights law enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), predating passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 by one full year. Once enacted, the EPA was originally enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor with jurisdiction being transferred to the EEOC in 1979.

The EPA prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the payment of wages or benefits, where men and women perform work of similar skill, effort, and responsibility for the same employer under similar working conditions. Under the EPA :

It is unlawful for employers to reduce the wages of either sex to equalize pay between men and women;
A violation may occur where a different wage is paid to a person who worked in the same job before or after an employee of the opposite sex;
A violation may also take place where a labor union causes the employer to violate the law;
An employer is permitted to base salary differences on seniority, merit, and quantity or quality of production - in fact, generally any other business-related factor, as long as it is not based on a person's sex; and
Employers found in violation of the EPA can be compelled to pay back pay, punitive relief, and liquidated damages if the violation is shown to be willful.

In the EPA's "Declaration of Purpose," Congress wrote that sex-based pay discrimination:

Depresses wages and living standards for employees necessary for their health and efficiency;'
Prevents maximum utilization of the available labor resources and tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce; and
Constitutes an unfair method of competition.

These factors are just as relevant today as they were in the 1960s.