<P> Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labor rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay . It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap . Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary payments, bonuses and allowances . Some countries have moved faster than others in addressing the problem . Since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, it has been illegal in the United States to pay men and women working in the same place different salaries for similar work . </P> <P> As wage - labor became increasingly formalized during the Industrial Revolution, women were often paid less than their male counterparts for the same labor, whether for the explicit reason that they were women or under another pretext . The principle of equal pay for equal work arose at the same time, as part of first - wave feminism, with early efforts for equal pay being associated with nineteenth - century Trade Union activism in industrialised countries: for example, a series of strikes by unionised women in the UK in the 1830s . Pressure from Trade Unions has had varied effects, with trade unions sometimes promoting conservatism . However, following the Second World War, trade unions and the legislatures of industrialized countries gradually embraced the principle of equal pay for equal work; one example of this process is the UK's introduction of the Equal Pay Act 1970 in response both to the Treaty of Rome and the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 . In recent years European trade unions have generally exerted pressure on states and employers for progress in this direction . </P>

When did equal pay for equal work begin