It's Time for Working Women to Earn Equal Pay
A recent Woman on the Job meeting, held at CMP Media featured Karen Nussbaum
director, Working Women's Department, AFL-CIO as keynote speaker.
The following is one of
a series of Fact Sheets produced by the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department,
815 16th St., N. W., Washington, D. C. 20006, (202) 637-5064, email at 104525.2207@compuserve.com
or on the web at www.aflcio.org\women
Equal pay has been the law since 1963. But today, 35 years later, women still
are paid less than men-even when we do similar work and have similar education,
skills and experience. In 1996, women were paid 74 cents for every dollar men
received. That's $26 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care and other
expenses for every $100 worth of work we do.
Because we're paid less now, we have less to spend on our families and less to
save for our futures. And when we retire we'll earn smaller pensions than men.
In 1994, women's private-pension benefits were less than half those of men-just
$3,000 a year, compared with $7,800.
Sure, we've made progress. But not nearly enough and not fast enough. In the 35
years since the Equal Pay Act passed, the pay gap between men and women has
narrowed by less than half, from 41 cents per dollar to 26 cents. And research
by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) finds that most of the recent
change is because men's real wages have been falling-not because women's have
risen.
Equal Pay Is an Issue for All Working Women
Over the past few decades,laws barring discrimination in education and employment have helped give working women opportunities our mothers never had. Today, women work in many different fields,
each requiring different skills and experience and paying different wages. But opening doors for working women has not closed the door on pay discrimination
- For Women lawyers, whose median weekly earnings are nearly $300 less than those
of male attorneys, and for women secretaries, who receive about $100 a week less
than male clericals;
- For women doctors, whose median earnings are more than $500 less each week than men's, and for 95% of nurses who are women but earn $30 less each week than the 5 % of nurses who are men;
- For Women professors, whose median pay is $170 less each week than men's and for women elementary school teachers who receive $70 less a week than men;
- For women food service supevisors who are usually paid about $60 less each week than men in the same job, and forwaitresses, whose median weekly earnings are $50 less than waiters'.
** SOURCE: Institute for Women's Policy Research.The Wage Gap: Women's and Men's Earnings. Note: Women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings are based on the median annual earnings of full-time, year round workers.
It's an Issue for Children and Families-and for Men, Too
Equal pay is not just a working women's issue - it's a family issue. If we ended
pay discrimination against women, family incomes would rise. Working parents
would have more to spend on household needs and more to save for their children's
education or their own retirement security. Working parents might be able to
spend less time at work and more time with their familles-a change that many
families would welcome.
Ending pay discrimination would help men, too. When an employer ends
discrimination by raising pay for jobs traditionally done by women (nursing, for
example), men in those jobs get raises as well. If we had equal pay for work of
equal value, the IWPR estimates, women's pay would be 13 percent higher and men's
pay would go up I percent. The law bars employers from lowering men's pay to
correct discrimination against women.
Women Get Paid Less Because Employers Still Discriminate in Several Ways
Jobs usually held by women pay less than jobs traditionally held by men-even if
they require the same education, skills and responsibilities. For example, stock
and inventory clerks, who are mostly men, earn about $470 a week. General office
clerks, on the other hand, are mostly women and they earn only $361 a week.
Women don't have equal job opportunities. A newly hired woman may get a
lower-paying assignment than a man starting work at the same time for the same
employer. That first job starts her career path and can lead to a lifetime of
lower pay.
Women don't have an equal chance at promotions, training and apprenticeships.
Because all these opportunities affect pay, women don't move up the earnings
ladder as men do.
But Discrimination Is Against the Law
An employer who pays women less than men or denies them job opportunities just
because they are women is guilty of sex discrimination. Two federal laws, an
executive order and some state and local laws prohibit pay discrimination against
women.
- The Equal Pay Act: Under the Equal Pay Act, which covers most workplaces, it
is unlawful to pay women less than men for work that is "substantially
equal"-that is, almost identical-unless the pay difference is based on seniority,
experience or other legitimate factors.
- Title VII: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers employers
with 15 or more workers, prohibits a range of discrimination, including paying
women less than men-even when their jobs are different-if the reason for the pay
difference is gender. Title VII also bars discrimination against women in
hiring, promotion, training, discipline and other job aspects, and makes sexual
harassment against women workers illegal.
- Executive Order 11246: A third measure, Executive Order 11246, is a
long-standing presidential directive (which has the effect of law) that applies
the protections of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII to companies that receive
federal contracts.
- State and Local Laws: Many states and communities have their own fair
employment laws and agencies that enforce equal pay protections and other
prohibitions against sex discrimination on the job. These laws are similar
to-and sometimes stronger than-federal laws.
How Do We Fix Pay Discrimination?
The laws that bar pay discrimination include "remedies." Proving discrimination
can be hard and can take a long time. But women who win often get back pay, new
job opportunities and repayment of lawyer fees and other money they spent to have
their rights enforced.
What Can You Do if You Believe Your Rights Have Been Violated?
You can:
- File a discrimination charge with a federal or state anti-discrimination
agency. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces the
Equal Pay Act and Title VII, as well as several other laws barring
discrimination.
- If you believe you have been denied a job, paid less, passed over for promotions
or discriminated against in other ways because you're a woman, you can file a
complaint with the EEOC office in your area. Generally, you must file your
complaint within 180 days of the discriminatory action. You don't need a lawyer;
the EEOC will help you prepare the case and advise you of additional rights you
may have or steps you should take (including any requirements for filing
complaints with state agencies).
- To be connected with the EEOC office in your area, call 1-800-669-4000. The EEOC
also can give you information about state or local fair employment agencies in
your area.
- The federal Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), part of the
U.S. Department of Labor, enforces Executive Order 11246. For information about
filing a complaint with OFCCP, call 1-888-376-3227.
- If you belong to a union, talk to your shop steward. The steward can give you
advice about your rights and help you file a grievance under the collective
bargaining agreement. The steward may also be able to help you file a complaint
with the EEOC office in your area.
- If you don't belong to a union, join one. When workers organize into a union,
they have a representative who bargains with the employer on their behalf over
wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. The union has a
unique ability to look at the wage rates for all the workers and determine if the
company is paying women less than men.
- Unionization really works! It narrows the wage gap by more than one-third: In
1996, union women earned 84 cents for every dollar earned by union men, compared
with 74 cents for women workers overall.
- And unions usually bring about higher pay. Unionized women earn 38 percent more
than women who aren't in unions.
You Can Win!
In 1997, Home Depot and Publix Supermarkets each agreed to pay more than $80
million to settle major lawsuits charging them with sex discrimination against
thousands of working women. The lawsuits alleged that, among other things, the
companies had assigned women to lower paying jobs, refused to give them raises,
denied them promotions and treated men better in other ways as well.
On a smaller scale, in November 1997 a jury ordered Oregon State University to
give back pay and other monetary damages to a woman who was fired from coaching
the women's softball team there and replaced by a man in 1 993. The juryfound
thatthroughoutthe coach's tenure the university paid her less than male coaches,
discriminated against the women's athletic program and retaliated against the
woman coach because she challenged discriminatory practices.
What Else Can You Do?
- Support efforts to bring "pay equity" to your workplace. "Pay equity" means
paying equal wages for jobs of equal value to a company. You and your co-workers
(or your union) can encourage your employer to implement a pay equity policy,
including a job evaluation system that reviews and compares the education, skills
and experience needed to perform differentjobs. Youremployerthen may adjust
payrates so that jobs of equal value to the company are paid equally-regardless
of who holds them. In addition, your union can include pay equitv among its
bargaining demands. Unions have won hundreds of millions of dollars for women
and men by bargaining for pay equity.
- Support new federal and state laws designed.to strengthen protections
against pay discrimination and bring pay equity to the workplace. Organize your
friends and co-workers to urge your U.S. senators and House members to vote for
the Fair Pay Act or other proposals that may be introduced in Congress to require
employers to end pay discrimination against women. And push your state
legislature to enact similar pay equity protections.
- If you work for a state or city government, find out whether efforts have
been made to end pay bias against public employees. Many have. As of 1996, 45
state governments had taken some type of pay equity action, ranging from simple
studies to actual pay adjustments. If your state or city hasn't taken action to
end pay bias against its own employees, tell your state and local officials that
you want your tax dollars to go to equal pay for working women!
Join the Working Women Working Together Network to get useful information and the
opportunity to make a difference. Call 1-888-971-9797.
For more information about pay discrimination and how to end it, contact:
The Coalition of Labor Union Women, 202- 785- 7200;
the National Committee on Pay Equity, 202-331-7343;
the National Employment Lawyers Association, 415-227-4655;
The National Employment Law Proj'ect, 212-285-3025;
the Women's Legal Defense Fund; the U.S. Department of Labor's Fair Pay Clearinghouse, 1-800-347-3741; or
The 9to5 Job Problems Hotline, 1-800-522-0925.
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