Closing the Gender Pay Gap: New Approaches to an Old Problem

Abstract

This article addresses new approaches to address a long-standing employment compensation problem—the gender pay gap. Existing approaches, including the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, are more than 50 years old, and have only been marginally successful in resolving this problem. A pay gap based on gender remains a problem today. New approaches include the potential passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act at the federal level and a variety of laws at the state level. Some states have passed pay equity laws that are more successful than the federal law due to the use of the comparable work concept. Additionally, some states have passed laws regulating the asking of salary history questions, as well as the use of non-compete and no-poaching agreements, all of which have a chilling effect on pay equity. The result of the combination of these actions is a probable reduction of the gender pay gap, although eliminating it remains a distant goal.