What US federal law requires equal pay for equal work regardless of gender?

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires equal pay for men and women performing equal work under comparable conditions.

President John F. Kennedy signed the law in 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. It targeted sex-based wage discrimination by requiring equal wages when jobs demand substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions. The jobs do not have to be identical, and titles alone do not determine whether work is equal.

The statute recognizes legitimate pay differences based on a seniority system, merit system, production-based compensation, or another factor other than sex. Employers generally may not respond to a violation by cutting the higher-paid worker’s wages. The law is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Equal Pay Act is often confused with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which also prohibits sex discrimination but covers a broader range of employment practices. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, enacted in 2009, changed the timing rules for certain compensation-discrimination claims; it did not replace the Equal Pay Act’s central requirement.