What is Equal Pay?
Thirty-five years ago, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first statute to address discrimination in the work place. The law prohibits employers from paying a female worker less than a male counterpart for “equal work.” The law defines “equal work” as jobs that require equal skill, effort and responsibility and are performed in similar working conditions. The tasks need not be identical, but substantially similar. When applying the equal work definition, the comparison is between the skills required by the two jobs, not by the talents of the two employees. A jobs skill level includes the experience, training, education, and ability necessary to accomplish that task. Effort is measured by the physical or mental exertion needed to perform the job, and responsibility refers to the level of accountability required. Similar working conditions include both an analysis of the jobs surroundings and hazards. Surroundings address the frequency or intensity of certain elements, like t
Equal Pay Similar to Levelized Billing, this option allows customers to pay the same amount for electric service every month with an adjustment to this amount every thirteenth month based on the previous twelve months’ actual bills. Equal Pay allows customers to easily budget their electric and gas bills, only having to make adjustments once a year in most cases.
Hibbing Public Utilities (HPU) offers an Optional Equal Pay Payment Plan to its residential and commercial customers. Under this program, historical account information and other data are applied to a formula resulting in a dollar figure, which will be the monthly payment amount. A major advantage to this program is that it offers you, the customer, equal monthly payments for utility services. However, participation in this program does not allow the customer to use unlimited utilities at a fixed cost. Budget payments are only estimates and once annually in May, all equal pay payment amounts will be recalculated, up or down, depending on your actual usage the previous year. When the installment amounts are recalculated in May, (depending on the amount), any actual balance owed to HPU will be included in the newly calculated installment amount. Any credit balance will be used to decrease the newly calculated installment payments. This is even one more reason to become more energy effici
It is unlawful for employers to pay men and women differently for the same jobs, jobs that have been rated the same under a job evaluation study, or jobs that are of equal value. The Equal Pay Act 1970 only covers discrimination between men and women, although it is possible to pursue a discrimination claim about pay using other equalities legislation such as the Race Relations Act.
