This Act established that women and men should be paid at the same rate when their work called for substantially similar skills, effort, and responsibility and was performed under similar conditions. If the women were doing work that was predominantly performed by women, their rates had to be equal with men doing work which met comparable criteria. The Act allowed for female rates to move incrementally to match those of men, so that by 1978 all awards would provide for equal pay. Inspectors were entitled to enter workplaces and inspect the records to monitor compliance.