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49 U. Tol. L. Rev. 741 (2017-2018)
Following the States' Lead: A Proposed Amendment to the Equal Pay Act

handle is hein.journals/utol49 and id is 765 raw text is: FOLLOWING THE STATES' LEAD: A PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE EQUAL PAY ACT Emina Causevic* INTRODUCTION NMAGINE that you are a female financial consultant at an accounting firm. You have been working there for five years, and one day over lunch you learn that a recent hire for the same position as yours has started at a higher salary because he disclosed his prior salary to your employer during the interview as a bargaining tool. You know that your credentials and experience match or exceed that of the new employee. While you are both qualified to do the same work, you receive a lower salary due to a fundamental difference between the two of you- sex. Unfortunately, you are a victim of the pay gap crisis still plaguing many workplaces in modern America. Historically, the American employment system is notorious for paying women comparatively less than men.' In the 1960s, women were compensated at roughly 59 cents for every dollar earned by men.2 By the early 1990s, this figure had only increased to 71 cents on every dollar. On average, women today are still paid only 80% of what their male colleagues are earning. This number is worse for some female minorities, such as African-American women, who earn 63% of what white men earn.5 Latinas fare even worse at 54%.6 Notwithstanding the trend toward equal pay, in recent years, the trend has begun to level off.7 If the pay gap closes at the rate it did between 1960 and 2015, women will achieve pay equity by 2059.8 If, however, the pay gap continues to close at the same rate it has since 2001, pay equity will not be possible until 2152.9 These statistics are both alarming . J.D. Candidate, University of Toledo College of Law, 2018; B.A., The Ohio State University, 2015. The author would like to thank Professor Nicole Porter for her insight and mentorship in the writing of this Note. 1. B. Tobias Isbell, Gender Inequality and Wage Differentials Between the Sexes: Is It Inevitable or Is There an Answer?, 50 WASH. U. J. URB. & CONTEMP. L. 369, 369 (1996). 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. Kevin Miller, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap, AAUW (Spring 2018), https://www.aauw.org/resource/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/ (select Download the Report hyperlink). 5. Teresa Wiltz, States Attack the Pay Gap Between Women and Men, STATELNE (Sept. 28, 2015), http://www.goveming.com/topics/mgmt/some-states-trying-to-fix-gender-pay-gap.html. 6. Id. 7. Miller, supra note 4. 8. Id. 9. Id.

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