Equal Opportunity and Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: American Government

This annotated bibliography delves into the Equal Opportunity Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, examining its significance in addressing wage discrimination. The paper focuses on the gender pay gap in the United States, referencing studies that highlight disparities and the impact of policies like wage transparency. The bibliography includes annotations of four scholarly sources, exploring the historical and constitutional basis of the act, the role of Congress in addressing pay inequity, the public moral arguments surrounding the act, and the emotional and cognitive effects of campaign advertisements related to gender-based appeals. The sources provide diverse perspectives on the act's implications for workforce strength, economic growth, and the closing of gender and racial wage gaps, emphasizing the importance of fair wages and equal opportunities for all citizens.

Running head: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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Topic: Equal Opportunity Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,
Part a:
This purpose of the paper is to provide an annotated bibliography where the paper will
focus on is the Equal Opportunity Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was passed in 2009 by
United States congress. The prime reason for choosing this act is that this act allows individuals
to seek ratification under anti-discrimination law who experienced discrimination regarding
wages. As discussed by Kim (2015), the gender pay gap is highly prevalent in other countries,
the fair amount of discrimination was observed in the united states where the unadjusted salary
of average woman has been cited as approximately 77% in the average men. Researchers
highlighted that apart from gender inequality, racial discrimination also has been observed in
United States which are affecting the economy of United States. Hence, this policy is aimed to
close the gap between unfair wages amongst the population by resetting the 180-day statute of
limitations for equal-pay lawsuits with every new paycheck issued. Moreover, it will reduce
facilitate the workforce strength and assists business industries of united states to retain
exceptional innovative minds by providing them equal wages irrespective gender, race, ethnicity.
Source: Canales, B. (2017). Closing the Federal Gender Pay Gap through Wage Transparency.
Hous. L. Rev., 55, 969.
Paragraph:
In the current era, despite working fulltime and possess similar qualities of men, women
earn twenty percent of their male counterpart. Canales (2017) conducted a study on Historical
and Constitutional Basis of the American Government’s Structure where the researchers showed
that majority of the women and individuals from other race and ethnicity are having accepting

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low wages than men. Due to the stringency of the American government, gender inequity has
been changed over the last fifteen years. Neither Congress nor courts can solve the nation’s
inequity and it further affected the economy of the United States. To close the gender gap,
Canales (2017) highlighted the need of full wage transparency for federal contractors with the
help of The Equal Pay Act passed on as wage transparency can help counteract the policy
secrecy of the organizations which prevent the employees to gather the understanding of the
potential wage discrimination. Consequently, it will reduce the possibility of the employers to
violet the human rights of the citizen and facilitate the process of the business industries to retain
female workers with exceptional and equal skills and responsibilities who previously
experienced unfair wages, especially women. The fair wages will provide the business to
improve their workflow, reduce poverty, boost the economy and bring faster growth to the
company.
Source 2:
Eidmann, K. A. (2007). Ledbetter on Congress: The Limits of a Narrow Legislative Override.
Yale LJ, 117, 971.
Paragraph:
The system of check and balance has been tested numerous times throughout the
centuries since the time the constitution was ratified. The system of checks and balances in
government was mainly developed to ensure that no branch of government would have the
power or hierarchy. Eidman (2007), provided a narrative or fair pay act which suggested that
when overriding a judicial interpretation of federal statutes, it is the responsibility of Congress
not to focus narrowly on the factual elements of the judicial interpretation. In this case, Congress

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should consider broadly how future court will interpret the action, following established methods
of statutory interpretation. Eidman (2007) provided the history of fair pay act and how to check
and balance come into play which further assists to reduce the gap of unfair wages. As Civil
rights legislations provide benefits to the marginalized groups such as older adults, women, the
population from disadvantages, it will help to retain the workforce with exceptional talent and
facilitate the faster growth of the organizations.
Source 3:
Hammond, E. (2013). Lilly Ledbetter Teaches Us a Lesson: 2012 DNC Speech Gives Way to
Public Moral Argument. Florida Communication Journal, 41(2).
Paragraph:
The gender pay gap has been emerged as a crucial issue in the United States which
affected the economy of the country, hinders the competitiveness and innovation, increase the
poverty level of the united stated and demoralized the working women. Hammond (2013)
examines the 2012 DNC speech given by lily Ledbetter with the help of narrative paradigm in
support of the president Obama where she praised President Obama for supporting women; s
issues. Lilly Ledbetter advances a public speech where she praised Obama for passing the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 and for supporting women's rights in all areas of his
administration. While the majority of the women in United States experienced such issues that
hindered their innovation and uniqueness, no president except Obama advocated against the
unfair wages of the women due to gender discrimination to restore civil rights. This paper will
support the final argument because the fair pay act mentioned in this paper will compel every
employer to pay women employees as the public can look to this piece of legislation as the cure

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for their hardships and encourage them to contribute in this company. Moreover, it will inspire
the future president to amend the legislation to reduce gender discrimination, poverty and boost
economic status.
Source 4:
Kam, C. D., Archer, A. M., & Geer, J. G. (2017). Courting the women’s vote: The emotional,
cognitive, and persuasive effects of gender-based appeals in campaign advertisements. Political
Behavior, 39(1), 51-75
Paragraph:
Citizens play a critical role in public opinion and electoral politics and voting is a method
that provides citizen an opportunity to choose leaders who will advocate for their hardships.
Kam, Archer, and Geer (2017), conducted an observational study where they evaluated how
citizens emotionally and cognitively reacts to the advertisement of the campaign which is based
on group-based appeal. The focus of the researchers were the differences amongst men and
women in their emotional responses to the campaign advertisement where research and how it
influences their vote choice. The research suggested that the campaign advertisement trigger
positive emotions amongst independent females compared to the independent males, especially
pro Obama ads. The researchers uncovered differences in significant emotions where
independent females provide positive responses to the posters. Hence, this paper will support the
fair pay act for closing the gender discrimination gap and support a significant number of women
to receive a similar paycheck of their counterpart. This paper contributes to boost the economy of
United States and facilitate the faster growth of the company with the potential workforce.

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Bibliography:
Canales, B. (2017). Closing the Federal Gender Pay Gap through Wage Transparency. Hous. L.
Rev., 55, 969.
Eidmann, K. A. (2007). Ledbetter on Congress: The Limits of a Narrow Legislative Override.
Yale LJ, 117, 971.
Hammond, E. (2013). Lilly Ledbetter Teaches Us a Lesson: 2012 DNC Speech Gives Way to
Public Moral Argument. Florida Communication Journal, 41(2).
Kam, C. D., Archer, A. M., & Geer, J. G. (2017). Courting the women’s vote: The emotional,
cognitive, and persuasive effects of gender-based appeals in campaign advertisements.
Political Behavior, 39(1), 51-75
Kim, M. (2015). Pay secrecy and the gender wage gap in the United States. Industrial Relations:
A Journal of Economy and Society, 54(4), 648-667.