law: Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
  4. Duty of employer to pay equal remuneration
  
  to men and women workers for same work or work of a similar nature.
  (1) No employer shall pay to any worker,
  
  employed by him in an establishment or employment, remuneration, whether
  
  payable in cash or in kind, at rates less favorable than those at which
  
  remuneration is paid by him to the workers of the opposite sex in such
  
  establishment or employment for performing the same work or work of a similar
  
  nature.
  (2) No employer shall, for the purpose of
  
  complying with the provisions of sub-section (1), reduce the rate of
  
  remuneration of any worker.
  (3) Where, in an establishment on employment,
  
  the rates of remuneration payable before the commencement of this Act for men
  
  and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature are different
  
  only on the ground of sex, then the higher (in cases where there are only two
  
  rates), or, as the case may be, the highest (in cases where there are more than
  
  two rates) of such rates shall be the rate at which remuneration shall be payable,
  
  on and from such commencement, to such men and women workers.
  PROVIDED  that nothing in this sub-section shall
  
  be deemed to entitle a worker to the revision of the rate of remuneration
  
  payable to him or her with reference to the service rendered by him or her
  
  before the commencement of this Act.
  Comment:  It is lastly urged on behalf of the
  
  petitioner that the enforcement of the Act will be highly prejudicial to the
  
  management, since its financial position is not satisfactory and the management
  
  is not able to pay equal remuneration to both male Stenographers and female
  
  Stenographers. The Act does not permit the management to pay to a section of
  
  its employees doing the same work or a work of similar nature lesser pay
  
  contrary to section 4(1) of the Act only because it is not able to pay equal
  
  remuneration to all. The applicability of the Act does not depend upon the
  
  financial ability of the management to pay equal remuneration as provided by
  
  it. AIR 1987 SUPREME COURT 1281, Mackinnon Mackenzie and Co. Ltd.v. Audrey
  
  D'Costa