Pay Equity

by Gail Humphrey, President

As Labor Day was celebrated on September 1 and we recognized workers’ contributions to the American economy, it’s hard to believe that nearly half the American workforce is being paid less than their colleagues for doing the same or comparable jobs. Who are these workers who are being paid less than they’re worth? We are America’s working women.

Forty-six percent of our nation’s workforce is made up of women. We play an indispensable role in every industry and field, and yet according to the U.S. Census Bureau we are paid only 77 cents for every dollar our male counterparts are paid.

Seventy percent of women report inequitable treatment at work according to The WAGE project. Half of these women take no action for fear of retaliation and less than five percent of those who do take action achieve fair pay, even when they present evidence of discrimination.

Discrimination’s role in the wage gap is evident when you consider that women’s wages are affected as soon as we begin our careers. According to a recent American Association of University Women (AAUW) study, one year out of college women are already paid only 80% of what our male counterparts are paid. After 10 years we are paid only 69% as much.

The wage gap is very real, very much caused by gender discrimination and has a significant impact on the economic security of American families. The majority of families in the United States rely on women’s wages–nearly 30% of working women earn all of their families’ income and 60% earn about half or more of their family’s income.

Women, in particular women raising children on their own, are more likely than men to be working in low-wage service industry jobs, according to Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment. Families supported by women segregated at the lower end of the earning spectrum are most significantly impacted by the wage gap. Nearly 40% of poor working women could leave welfare if they received pay equity wage increases, according to The National Committee for Pay Equity.  Formerly a career counselor contracted to the Dept. of Human Services for five years,  I witnessed the huge impact the wage gap has on women who are struggling to get by working in low-paying jobs. When you’re already scrambling to make ends meet, losing almost a quarter out of every dollar is devastating to a family budget.

We can’t let another Labor Day go by without ensuring that all American workers are honored not just with an annual day off but with fair compensation for the work we do. When Congress returns to work after Labor Day they must take swift action to demonstrate our national commitment to equal treatment for all workers.

First, the U.S. Senate needs to follow the House of Representatives’ lead and pass legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire decision that weakened the enforcement of standing pay discrimination laws. Last month, the House passed a bill which clarifies that employees have 180 days to file pay discrimination after their last discriminatory pay check—not their first, as the Supreme Court held in Ledbetter.  The Senate should do the same immediately upon returning to DC next week.

However, preventing current protections from being weakened is not enough—we need legislation that proactively moves us forward on the path to pay equity.

The Paycheck Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), would do just that. The bill, which has been re-introduced in every Congress during the last decade, would update our current pay equity law, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by closing loopholes that enable employers to shirk their accountability for pay discrimination. It increases transparency by prohibiting employers from punishing employees for sharing salary information with co-workers and it would ensure that regulatory agencies tasked with reducing wage discrimination have the tools they need.

Women have waited long enough for fair pay. Seventy-five percent of Americans report that they are aware of the existence of the wage gap and we are more likely to attribute the wage gap to discrimination than to any other factor, according to the AAUW Educational Foundation. In the last election, women voters were the decisive factor in shifting the balance of power in the Senate. We will use our voting power again in 2008 to elect legislators who protect our rights and the economic security of our families. We call Congress to stand with us in support of pay equity by passing this long-overdue legislation.