Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1973
Abstract
In Robert Hall the court refused to follow the lead of the cases immediately preceding it which delved into the justifications for wage differentials to discover evidence of discrimination. If the Equal Pay Act is to be effective, the courts must discover the motive for paying women less, not just accept the employer's excuse at face value. Robert Hall may represent a step backward for the Equal Pay Act and the ramifications of the decision should be carefully studied before it is allowed to stand. This decision could be broadly construed to enable an employer to undermine the Act by justifying his wage differentials with a general assertion that male employees are of more economic benefit. If economic benefit is allowed as an exception to the Act, it should be strictly correlated to individual employees, and the courts must be alert for patterns of discrimination against one sex. Otherwise, economic benefit to the employer, as an exception to the Equal Pay Act, could be the loophole through which the whole purpose of the Act could disappear.
Recommended Citation
44 Miss. L.J. 1028 (1973).