PROSPECTS FOR EQUAL PAY INBRITAIN:Retail Distribution and the Equal Pay Act 1970

Abstract

Equal Pay—Objectives and Achievement Equal pay for women has a history of policy declarations dating back in Great Britain to the resolution of the Trades Union Congress in 1888: “That in the opinion of this Congress it is desirable, in the interests of both men and women, that in trades where women do the same work as men, they shall receive the same pay.” On an international level the International Labour Organisation included the concept of “equal remuneration for work of equal value” in its constitution adopted in 1919, reiterating the principle in Convention 100 in 1951, which was not however ratified by this country until 1971, one year after the passage of the Equal Pay Act. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states that “everyone, without distinction, has the right to equal pay for equal work”, with a more precise definition in its 1967 Declation on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “that all appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure to women,… the right to equal remuneration with men and to equality of treatment in respect of work of equal value”. In contrast, under Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome member states of the European Economic Community are required to “ensure and subsequently maintain the application of the principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work”.