Employment Law: Everything You Need to Know

Over fifty years after John F. Kennedy pushed through the iconic Equal Pay Act of 1963, equal pay between men and women is still a fallacy in the US. However, no career calls out this fallacy like the nursing profession. Ordinarily, equal pay issues regard women who endeavor into male dominated careers such as crafts being paid less than their male counterparts. The nursing profession however, has always been female dominated albeit men are venturing into it contemporarily (Jimenez, 2015). In reprehensible breach of the aforesaid Equal Pay Act however, male nurses are paid more than female nurses. 

Rationalizations 

Jimenez (2015) clearly shows some of the circumspect rationalizations used in this breach of the equal pay act which include the contention that most male nurses are more educated than their female counterparts. This is a mere excuse since female nurses are currently pursuing their studies to an advanced level and the inequality in pay still persists. Another justification is to offer promotions to the men nurses at the expense of the women (Jimenez, 2015). Excuses given on this is that the male workers perform better. A sexist excuse is also given that female nurses’ careers are hampered by maternity and family related issues, which is also a pure fallacy since even nurses who do not have families are still subjected to the same form of pay discrimination. 

Conclusion 

The female nurses in the hospital whose male counterparts are getting higher salaries than them have a right to complain over equal pay discrimination. The expert is indeed right, if male nurses are getting higher pay, so should the female nurses. This is because the amount paid to the men nurses is what the hospital considers standard pay for nurses, with the women nurses being short-changed. This is also an aspect of sexual discrimination as they are ill-treated purely on the basis of their gender. 

Reference 

Jimenez, S. (2015, August 10). Nurses speak out about gender pay gap. Nursing news, stories, & articles . Retrieved from <https://www.nurse.com/blog/2015/08/10/nurses-speak-out-about-gender-pay-gap/>