Women Get Equal Pay In One State
Women in California are now reaping the benefits of a law that’s been called the strongest equal pay law in the nation.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Fair Pay Act on Tuesday, enacting a law that will force employers to prove that pay is based on performance rather than gender if they choose to pay a man higher wages than a woman (or vice versa) for the same job.
The move comes after a study of women working full time in California in 2013 found that they were receiving 84 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. The L.A. Times reports that a signing ceremony was held at the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif.
“The inequities that have plagued our state ... are slowly being resolved with this kind of bill,” Brown said.
The new law, introduced by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), bans employers in the state from paying an employee a wage that is lower than the rates that an employee of the opposite sex doing the same work receives. It’ll also bar employers from retaliating against employees who raise issues concerning unfair compensation in comparison to other employees.
That being said, the gender gap is still happily chugging along in the other 49 states of This Great Nation. Here’s a handy chart, produced by the American Association of University Women, showing where half of the population can’t make fair wages:
