CQ Researcher Report: Gender Pay Gap

Each week the CQ Researcher addresses a different topic of current interest. This week’s CQ Researcher report asks the question: Are women paid fairly in the workplace? 

“More than four decades after Congress passed landmark anti-discrimination legislation – including the Equal Pay Act of 1963 – a debate continues to rage over whether women are paid fairly in the workplace. Contending that gender bias contributes to a significant “pay gap,” reformists support proposed federal legislation aimed at bringing women’s wages more closely in line with those of men. Others say new laws are not needed because the wage gap largely can be explained by such factors as women’s choices of occupation and the amount of time they spend in the labor force. Meanwhile, a class-action suit charging Wal-Mart Stores with gender bias in pay and promotions – the biggest sex-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history – may be heading for the Supreme Court. Some women’s advocates argue that a controversial high-court ruling last year makes it more difficult to sue over wage discrimination.”

• Is discrimination a major cause of the wage gap? 
• Are new laws needed to close the gender pay gap?
• Is equity possible after the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter ruling?

Read the rest of the report here.