The second major federal statute that deals with gender discrimination is the Equal Pay Act. This statute was actually enacted in 1963, before Title VII, as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. In essence, the Equal Pay Act required employers to pay persons performing jobs requiring skill, effort, and responsibility, and with similar working conditions, at the same rates, regardless of gender. Whether jobs based on these considerations are “equal” or not is determined by analyzing the actual content of the jobs. Job titles or written job descriptions have no determinative effect. Wage differences for such equal jobs may only be permitted on the basis of “factors other than gender.” Such factors include, but are not limited to, seniority or merit systems or systems that pay employees differently based on different quality or quantities of work performed.
It is significant that wage discrimination based on gender, prohibited by the Equal Pay Act, is also illegal under Title VII. This means that a female employee who is paid less than a similarly situated male employee for performing the same job may sue her employer under both Title VII and the EPA. Because the EPA is part of the Fair Labor Standards Act rather than Title VII, it is not governed by Title VII’s statute of limitations of no more than 300 days. EPA claims can be filed in court up to two years after the date of the alleged discrimination, or even three years after that date if the violation by the employer can be proven to be willful. The EPA also provides plaintiffs who win their cases with different remedies than Title VII. These remedies may include not only damages in the form of lost pay due to the plaintiff being paid less than comparable employees of the other gender, but also liquidated damages. Liquidated damages under the EPA and FLSA are determined by doubling the amount of the actual lost pay damages.