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ARTICLE · 21 NOVEMBER 2019

Equal Pay And Barbie Dolls

Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
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Last week, I had the honor of speaking on a panel at the national First Chair Equal Pay Summit in Chicago, attended by prominent women from top law firms and companies in the U.S.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Mary A. Smigielski
Mary A. Smigielski
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Last week, I had the honor of speaking on a panel at the national First Chair Equal Pay Summit in Chicago, attended by prominent women from top law firms and companies in the U.S. (and some delightful and progressive men). I was equally amazed by the incredible dedication of this group to equality in pay and opportunity for women and the fact that the conference was necessary in the first place.

President Kennedy signed the federal Equal Pay Act (EPA) in 1963, 56 years ago. At the time, he remarked that it "prohibits arbitrary discrimination against women in the payment of wages". Based on the statistics, we are not yet there:

  • When the EPA was passed, there were approx. 25 million women in the workforce, and the average woman earned 60% of what a man earned.

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