Yet, women who apply for nontraditional jobs, and women workers throughout the labor force, still encounter overt and covert discrimination. In one study, people who had graduated from the University of Pittsburgh master's program in business administration and were working in that field were examined. In another study, factors such as kind of college degree, number of years worked, socioeconomic origins, organization size, and role in the organization were statistically controlled. Pay Equity Pay equity, also referred to as 'fair pay,' tries to eliminate sex and race discrimination in wage-setting practices. It means equal pay for work of equal value, even when that work is different.
Fair pay corrects a common practice of paying less for work performed by women.
For generations past, it was legal to pay women and people of color just a fraction of what majority-group men were paid for the same job. But today, the Equal Pay Act passed in 1963, requires equal pay for the same work. But that Equal Pay Act is ignored. It also is not enough because today about half of all employed women are in jobs that are different from those that men do. Pay Equity advocates are currently trying to change the law so that it covers jobs that may be different from men's jobs but are still equal or equivalent.