This week the focus was on the legal frameworks that shaped Human
Resource Management. The turning point when Human Resource started to
transform into its present state was 1964. McConnell (2021) states with only
two exceptions, wage-and-hour legislation and labor-relations laws,
corporations were basically allowed to treat workers however they saw fit
prior to 1964. The Fair Labor Standards Act was one of the legislations that
clearly affected how employees interacted with one another. The Equal Pay
Act of 1963 is the modification to the Fair Labor Standards Act and “prohibits
wage discrimination based on sex or gender for jobs that require equal skill,
effort, and responsibility, and are performed under similar working
conditions” (Mello, 2019). Despite the enactment of the Equal Pay Act,
research shoes that women are still earning much less than men. Women
continue to be outnumbered in elevated, well-paid professions and
disproportionately represented in low-paying jobs both in the United States
and globally. Pay variations for the same profession can be justified by
experience, performance, a payment system that gauges wages by the value
or quantity of work produced or any other reason except gender.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
recently reported that in all industrialized countries, the median salary for
full-time female employees was only 82.4% of that for male employees and
the United States workforce follows the same disparity (Choi, 2018). There
have been additional laws enacted to support gender inequality earnings
such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (prohibiting pay discrimination
against women and other minorities) and the Paycheck Fairness Act
(enhances the Equal Pay Act). Women who are equally productive as their
male coworkers in professions where women predominate may have their
earnings drop as a result of the restriction of women from traditionally male
employment. Examples of such fields include healthcare, social, and
educational. For instance, women frequently receive separate job titles with
lower compensation even though they perform the same tasks as men. The
Equal Pay act of 1963 encompasses equal pay for equal work regardless of
gender. Romans 13:7 reads “Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom
taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect
id owed, honor to whom honor id owed” (English Standard Version, 2001). It
is important to appropriately compensate persons (male or female) who are
exceptional and have the knowledge and skill set necessary to handle such
difficult tasks in the workplace.
Human Resource professionals are becoming more interested in how
HR policies and practices could increase gender equity and mitigate ethical
concerns as obligatory and optional organization reporting on gender pay
discrepancies gains traction. Although it is widely acknowledged that
company HR policies influence workforce disparities, less is known about the
specific types of policies that could advance gender equality and what
circumstances. Organizations' personnel policy decisions are shaped and
constrained by external and internal variables. Ugarte et al. (2021) makes
the point that written regulations and organizational procedures that control
the employment and compensation system won't eliminate negative gender
impacts observed in highly subjective decision-making organizations, but
they can lessen them if they specify the standards for raises and restrict the
potential for fluctuation.
References
Choi, S. (2018). Pay equity in government: Analyzing determinants of gender
pay disparity in the U.S. federal government. Administration & Society, 50(3),
346-371. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399715581623 Links to an external
site.
English Standard Version, 2001, Romans 13:7
McConnell, C.R. (2021). Human resources management in Healthcare
Management: Jones & Bartlett
Mello, J. A. (2019). Why the equal pay act and laws which prohibit salary
inquiries of job applicants can not adequately address gender-based pay
inequity. SAGE Open, 9(3),
215824401986910. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019869106 Links to an
external site.
Ugarte, S. M., & Rubery, J. (2021). Gender pay equity: Exploring the impact of
formal, consistent and transparent human resource management practices
and information. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(1), 242-
258. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12296 Links to an external site.
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