The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The Equal Pay Act of 1963
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is the text of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Pub. L. 88-38) (EPA), as amended, as it
appears in volume 29 of the United States Code, at section 206(d). The EPA, which is part of the Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938, as amended (FLSA), and which is administered and enforced by the EEOC, prohibits sex-
based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who are performing under similar
working conditions. Cross references to the EPA as enacted appear in italics following the section heading.
Additional provisions of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, as amended, are included as they appear in volume 29 of the
United States Code.
MINIMUM WAGE
SEC. 206. [Section 6]
(d) (1) No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this
section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such
employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying
wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at
which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment
for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill,
effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working
conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority
system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by
quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any
other factor other than sex: Provided, That an employer who is
paying a wage rate differential in violation of this subsection shall not,
in order to comply with the provisions of this subsection, reduce the wage
rate of any employee.
(2) No labor organization, or its agents, representing employees of
an employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section
shall cause or attempt to cause such an employer to discriminate against
an employee in violation of paragraph (1) of this subs