That women are entitled to equal pay with men for equal work, was
recognized by the ancient Babylonians five or six thousand years ago.
The justice of this demand is so self-evident, that it would hardly seem
to need any discussion. Notwithstanding all labor organizations have
been compelled to place it on their program, as many factory owners
employed the cheaper woman- and child-labor only in order to underbid
and reduce the wages of the male laborers. As female laborers have been
much more poorly organized than men, they have been less capable of
maintaining their claims.
The first equal opportunity and equal pay laws were passed in the State
of Washington. In 1890 a section was added to her Labor Laws reading as
follows: “Hereafter in this state every avenue of employment shall be
open to women; and any business, vocation, profession, and calling
followed and pursued by men may be followed and pursued by women, and no
person shall be disqualified from engaging in or pursuing any business,
vocation, profession, calling or employment on account of sex.”
Section 5 of Industrial Welfare Commission of the State of Washington,
Order of September 10, 1918, is the first general equal pay law: “That
women doing equal work with men in any occupation, trade, or industry in
this state shall receive the same compensation therefor as men during
work of the same character and of like quantity and quality, the
determination of what constitutes equal work to rest with the Industrial
Welfare Commission.”