President John F. Kennedy signed the United States Equal Pay Act into law

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The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a labor law of the United States amending the Fair Labour Standards Act. This act aims to end wage disparity based on gender. It is legislation mandating equal pay for equal work.

Initially, the National War Labour Board of the United States advocated equal pay for equal work in the year 1942, and an Equal Pay Act was proposed in the year 1945. Later, the Equal Pay Act into law was signed by President John F. Kennedy on June 10th, 1963. This act was enacted as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It includes regulations on minimum wages, overtime, and child labor.

Working women had a higher turnover rate due to family obligations and some government laws prohibited women from working at night are some reasons to justify the unequal pay. Also, the income of women was not considered an important thing to the survival of the household. The Equal Pay Act indicates men and women who work in jobs that are substantively equal in terms of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions in the place of work shall receive the same pay. It gives permission to differences in wages based on other differentials not based on genders such as seniority, merit, quality, or quantity of production.  According to a result of the Reorganization Act of 1977, the enforcement of the Equal Pay Act shifted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the United States in the year 1979.