Economics Research Seminar Series: Martha Bailey

How the 1963 Equal Pay Act and 1964 Civil Rights Act Shaped the Gender Gap in Pay. Professor Martha J. Bailey University of California

In the 1960s, two landmark statutes—the Equal Pay and Civil Rights Acts—targeted the long-standing practice of employment discrimination against U.S. women. For the next 15 years, the gender gap in median earnings among full-time, full-year workers changed little, leading many scholars and advocates to conclude the legislation was ineffectual. This paper uses two different research designs to show that women’s relative wages grew rapidly in the aftermath of this legislation. The data show little evidence of short-term changes in women’s employment, but some results suggest that firms reduced their hiring and promotion of women in the medium term.

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