How Are Women’s Rights Protected in the Workplace?
The United States has come a long way in terms of women’s rights. From first starting to work outside the home in the 19th century to the present day, women are running boardrooms and holding some of the highest offices in our country.
But the fight isn’t yet over. Discrimination based on sex and gender still exists in American workplaces today. This makes it all the more important for workers to know what laws protect them against discrimination.
Along with this progression have come laws to support female advancement in the workforce and provide women with equal pay, protection from harassment and discrimination, and more.
7 Anti-Discrimination Laws to Protect Your Rights
Agencies of the federal government enforce these anti-discrimination laws. This gives workers the support of large and powerful agencies that can hold businesses large and small accountable for their actions.
Let’s take a look at seven laws that have had the greatest impact on working women.
- Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963 – Under the EPA, men and women doing substantially the same job in the same workplace must be equally paid. The law doesn’t just apply to salary or hourly wage but also includes overtime, bonuses, stock options, benefits, vacation and holiday pay, and profit-sharing plans. When alleging a violation, one may file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or go to court. Efforts to close the age-old gender pay gap ramped up during World War II, but it wasn’t until President Kennedy signed the EPA that pay equity became law.
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Title VII, which applies to employers with 15 or more employees, prohibits discrimination based on sex. It also protects women from sexual harassment in the workplace. The original Civil Rights Act, passed in 1964, did not include women. Sex didn’t become a protected class under Title VII until 1967. Sexual discrimination is now afforded all the same remedies as other protected classes, including compensatory and punitive damages for intentional discrimination.
- Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 – The PDA prohibits sex discrimination in employment and hiring on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to either. It applies to promotions, job assignments, layoffs, training, and other aspects of employment. The Act also requires companies that offer disability leave to temporarily disabled employees to extend the same policy to women who are temporarily disabled by pregnancy.
- Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 – Whereas the PDA prohibited discrimination against pregnant women, it wasn’t until 1993 and the passage of the FMLA that certain female employees of qualifying employers were legally assured up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave for childbirth as well as caring for a newborn or adopted child.
- Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 – As the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Obama, this act resets the two-year statute of limitations for an equal pay complaint with each new paycheck. Prior to the Act, the statute of limitations began with the first paycheck when unequal pay took place. If a woman had been unequally paid for three years but only found out about it with her most recent paycheck, she couldn’t file a claim under the old rules because the two-year statute had expired.
- The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 – The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for up to one year following the birth of her child. The Act also requires employers to provide a shielded space, other than a bathroom, for women to express milk. The law applies to employers with 50 or more employees.
- Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 – In this legislation, Congress took the issue of sexual harassment and discrimination to the corporate tax return. For years, payments to settle sexual harassment claims have been considered a deductible business expense, even if they contained a nondisclosure agreement and remained a secret to the public and shareholders. In an effort toward more disclosure and clarity of sexual harassment and discrimination charges, the TCJA made settlements with nondisclosure agreements nondeductible.
Other Protections for Women in the American Workplace
The battle for a workplace economy doesn’t end with anti-discrimination laws protecting workers from sex and gender discrimination. Women in the workplace also suffer discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. It’s important to understand all the protections you have as a worker in the United States.
Contact the Workplace Discrimination Attorneys at Barrett & Farahany For Help
At Barrett & Farahany, we are happy to answer any questions about equal pay, Title VII and sexual discrimination, employee rights, policies toward pregnancy and childbirth, and other laws and gender-related issues primarily affecting women.
If you have suffered discrimination or any other violation of your rights as a worker, Barrett & Farahany can help. Our attorneys are experienced in defending women’s rights in the workplace. Please contact us to speak to one of our attorneys for help.
