Gender Equality and Labor Markets

Introduction

You are a part of a global effort to increase access to education and empower students through “open pedagogy.”  Open pedagogy is a “free access” educational practice that places you – the student – at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative learning environment.  The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community.  This is a renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Economics and Gender Studies to achieve SDG #5: Gender Equality.   

Learning Objectives

In this assignment, you will learn about the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1964, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, and the gender wage inequality in the U.S. labor market.

Purpose/Rationale

This active learning practice is designed to improve your academic skills, increase community connections, and improve social justice for our community.

Instructions

Step 1: Check out the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website:

Step 2: Read the article Gender wage inequality: What we know and how we can fix it by Sarah Glynn (2018).

Step 3: Based on what you gather from previous steps, write an essay (two to three pages, single spaced, font 12) about the legal framework for equal pay in the U.S. and how it affects female workers in the U.S. labor market. Make sure to address the following points:

• Describe the gender pay inequality in the U.S.
• What are consequences of gender pay inequality in a society?
• What are the Equal/Fair Pay Acts, and why gender pay inequality still exists despite the Acts?
• Recommend 3 policies to address the gender pay inequality in the U.S.

Step 4: Provide a References section to cite all the sources from which you extract information for your research. This section is not counted into the page requirement above.

Note: Do not use direct quotes from other articles. You should be able to rephrase and express what you have learnt using your own words.

Format Requirements

Use APA citation format.

Submit your essay as a pdf document on Blackboard’s Course Content. To submit, attach the file through the Submission section inside the Signature Assignment folder at the bottom of the Course Content page. Do not write the essay in the Comments section or email it to the professor. Do not share your Google docs because the professor might not be able to open it to grade, and you will get a zero for your assignment.

You can submit up to 3 times but only the last version will be graded.

Your work will be submitted through SafeAssign. SafeAssign checks your work against work available on the Internet as well as a database of student papers. This is plagiarism-detection tool. Violations of more than 20% will result in a zero grade for the assignment. You cannot submit your paper in another class without revision because SafeAssign will flag you for plagiarism.