#press hit

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Equal pay for equal work: How do we get it?

Massachusetts has a plan.

Over time, the pay gap between men and women has decreased, but it's snail-like progress. According to an estimate by the IWPR, "... if change continues at the same slow pace as it has done for the past 50 years, it will take 44 years — or until 2059 — for women to finally reach pay parity." Women are the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of America's families, so this disparity affects millions of kids and dependent adults as well.

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Despite the recent recession, colleges have been making an effort to offer benefits to those seeking a degree in an effort to increase attendance.

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), 4.8 million undergraduates are attempting to seek a degree while raising children. Despite comprising one-fourth of college students, there are few benefits available at major universities and colleges to aid in their education.

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Paid sick days are currently unavailable to some 77 percent of Chicago workers earning less than $20,000 per year, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Altogether, 42 percent of Chicago’s private sector workers—nearly half a million people—are not allowed paid sick leave by their employers.

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The county of Orange’s female public employees earn on average 27 percent less than its male workers, making its gender pay gap the worst among four large California counties studied in a state audit released this week.

Hegewisch said occupational gender segregation – a term used to describe the difference in jobs men and women hold or apply for – is one of the leading causes of public sector gender wage gaps and that the disparity between male and female public safety workers is a major factor. She said law enforcement and fire agencies generally need to do a better job of actively encouraging women to apply for positions.

“I do not know the circumstances in Orange County, but you need to be proactive on those issues. You can’t just say ‘We won’t discriminate,’” Hegewisch said.

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A state audit released Tuesday found a significant – and growing – gap in the average pay for men and women working for several large California counties, including Los Angeles.

Levenson said requiring more documentation of the rationale behind hiring could help “alleviate either conscious or unconscious bias on the part of hiring managers.”

Ariane Hegewisch, program director of employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, agreed.

“If decision makers know that they’re being held accountable, bias becomes reduced,” she said.

But Sawhill noted that managers may not be honest about their reasons for picking one candidate over another.

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The addition of the women — Harriet Tubman and other suffragists and civil rights heroines to the $10 and $5 bills — is a positive step. But it won’t count for much, not in most women’s wallets.

According to a report released in April by the Joint Economic Committee, based on median annual earnings, a woman working full time, year-round, will lose nearly $500,000 over a career because of gender pay gaps.

That’s $10,800 less per year than a man.

Pay gaps like this aren’t going to be fixed easily and certainly not by stamping a few women’s faces on a U.S. sawbuck. And at the current rate of change, cites the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the gender pay gap will not close until 2059.

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Los Angeles workers would be able to earn at least six paid sick days annually — twice the state minimum — under a proposed law that the City Council backed Tuesday.

Backers of the new law estimate that more than 650,000 L.A. workers could be affected by the city requirements, based on an earlier analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research that gauged how many workers had no access to paid sick leave before California passed its law in 2014.

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I'd say "Happy Equal Pay Day," but the entire point of the occasion (this year it's April 12) is that it's not a happy day; if you're a woman, it's likely a very angry one. Every year, Equal Pay Day measures how long women would have to work into the new year just to earn the same as men did in the 12 months of the previous one.

According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the 20 jobs dominated by women are low-earning ones, and even in those they earn less than their male counterparts. Those professions, including maid, secretary, nursing, social work, secondary school teaching, and administrative assistance, may be paid less because they're seen as "emotional" and "caring" occupations rather than truly "skilled". Women's work, in other words, is circumscribed by social expectations, and then not properly valued. Four of the most common occupations for women have, on average, a below-poverty line wage for women. It's enough to make you bang your head against a wall.