Sex is another demographic characteristic for which discrimination has been prohibited since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law. This law prohibits discrimination in employment based on sex, race, and other characteristics.

Unfortunately, a gender salary gap also exists, meaning that women on average make less money than men. Despite more than five decades of legal protection against discrimination in wages, women’s median weekly earnings in the first quarter of 2020 were 80.4% of men’s. While it is true that this gap has decreased (from 58.9% of earnings by men in 1963.), research suggests that the current rate of progress would not give women equality in salaries until 2059.

Some large organizations, including The Washington Post and Citigroup, have analyzed their own payrolls, to find that race and gender salary gaps exist within their firms. Your assigned article for this week, Connley’s (2019), offers a summary of such findings.