The Less Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Abstract As of 2022, US women who worked full-time, year-round earned 18 fewer cents for every dollar men made. The gap was even larger for Black women and Latinas who earned 31 cents and 43 cents less respectively than what White men earned. This chapter assesses why the United States’ mixed, lightly coercive authority instruments of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Complaints and federal lawsuits have had gender neutral outcomes. Analysis of EEOC data, federal lawsuits, media coverage, and congressional speeches from before and after the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 show the federal enforcement process places an enormous burden on women to shoulder the costs associated with identifying discrimination and proving punishments and restitution are required. Consequently, few women receive financial restitution in equal pay cases, and intersectionally marginalized women are more likely to lose in federal court. Several states have gone beyond federal policy protections to reduce state-level pay gaps, yet state-level approaches also tend to be mixed with limited coercion to ensure compliance. This leads to the limitations of federal policy being mirrored at the state-level. Policies at both the federal and state-levels have failed to achieve gender transformation and lead to gender neutral policy. The analysis suggests that unless major changes are made in equal pay enforcement, American policy will continue to preserve traditional gender hierarchies.