Equal Pay Day is April
4
Tuesday,
April 4th is Equal Pay Day, a national day of education and action to combat
the gender pay gap. It is the symbolic day when women’s earnings “catch up” to
men’s earnings from the previous year. This means women on average have to work
until April 4 just to take home what a man did in 2016.
Equal Pay
Day symbolizes the wage gap for all women taken together, but it does not tell
the whole story. And that 20 percent gap gets even larger for women of color
and moms.
Compared
with salary information for white male workers, Asian American women’s salaries
show the smallest gender pay gap, at 85 percent of white men’s earnings. The
gap was largest for Hispanic and Latina
women, who were paid only 54 percent of what white men were paid in 2015.
All women
pay just as much as men for everything they buy, but only have – at best – 80
cents on the dollar in purchasing power.
And it is
not just the pay gap that puts women behind. Gender discrimination affects so
much more than just a paycheck. In order to have true economic equality, we
have to address many other issues: workplace fairness, paid family and medical
leave, affordable, high-quality early learning and childcare opportunities,
earned sick days and raising the minimum wage.
The pay gap
is compounded by age. Earnings for both female and male full-time workers tend
to increase with age, though earnings increase more slowly after age 45 and
even decrease after age 55. The gender pay gap also grows with age, and
differences among older workers are considerably larger than gaps among younger
workers. Women typically earn about 90 percent of what men are paid until they
hit 35. After that median earnings for women are typically 74–82 percent of
what men are paid.
And even
more education won’t erase the pay gap. At every level of academic achievement,
women’s median earnings are less than men’s median earnings, and in some cases,
the gender pay gap is larger at higher levels of education. Women earn less 10
years after enrolling in college than men do six years after enrolling. A
college education that cost them just as much to get as their male
counterparts.
According
to AAUW research, the pay gap won't close until 2152 nationally. Here in New York State, we have it better – by a little. New York will close the
wage gap if it continues on its current course in – 2049.
It is time
to pay more than lip service to Equal Pay. We need real solutions to all of the
economic barriers that prevent women from achieving equality. Immediate
legislative and executive action is needed to enable women to bring home the
pay they have rightfully earned.
The Equal
Pay Act of 1963 is in dire need of an update in order to reflect America’s
modern economy. We need Congress to act. Passing a new federal law, like the
Paycheck Fairness Act, would help protect everyone in all states from unfair
pay discrimination.
In
addition, we need state action to move forward on equal pay. When an employer
bases wages on a job applicant’s past salary, pay discrimination from prior
employment continues and multiplies throughout her career. This common
practice negatively affects women and people of color who face continuing bias
in the job and negotiation process.
In particular,
low wage workers suffer because “women’s work” is undervalued, making pay based
on prior salary depressed. And because women typically have larger caregiving
responsibilities, many reduce hours or leave jobs and are penalized upon
returning. And, when salary is used to screen applicants for job advancement,
it can act as a disqualifier because of assumptions that low wages means
unqualified.
Over time,
lower salaries add up and affect the worker and her family’s financial health
and her retirement security. New wages should reflect the match between the
candidate’s qualifications and the job’s requirements and pay scale, not past
salary.
Urge your
elected officials to co-sponsor, support - and PASS - the NYS Salary History bills: A.6706/S.5233 this year. It is time for
action, not lip service.
