Women Play Catch-Up at Work
Decades after passage of the Equal Pay Act, women still earn $3 for every $4 earned by men. Experts predict it will take another 40 years for women to reach parity.
Because women experience a wage gap — 26 percent in 1998 — they must work 15 months for their earnings to catch up to what men earn in 12 months. April 8 symbolizes the point into the new year that a woman must work to earn the salary paid to a man in the previous calendar year.
“Equal pay is the number one concern for working women today,” says Susan Bianchi-Sand, executive director of the National Committee on Pay Equity. AFSCME is a founding member of NCPE, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization working to end wage disparity in the United States. NCPE coordinates the national observance of Equal Pay Day.
“On Equal Pay Day, women across the nation stand together to demand the respect that comes with a fair paycheck,” Bianchi-Sand says. “And men participate too, because they want their wives, daughters, and friends to be treated fairly.”
Union membership is key to improving wages. Unionized women earn one-third more than non-union women.
AFSCME has won pay gains at the bargaining table and in state and local legislatures. Council 61 in Iowa negotiated a $30 million package of pay upgrades for state employees in positions usually held by women.
“AFSCME makes a difference in pay and benefits. We can put our wages up against anybody's,” says Jan Corderman, president of Council 61 and AFSCME International vice president. “Collective bargaining is a system that works for women.”
AFSCME’s biggest victory last year occurred in West Virginia. After vigorous lobbying by AFSCME, state legislators passed a bill requiring the state to create a commission to study wage inequities and come up with a plan to correct them.
‘KITCHEN TABLE ISSUE.’ Pay inequity is a “kitchen table issue,” Alexis Herman, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, believes. “I have yet to go to the grocery store to buy a $1 loaf of bread and have the cashier look up and say, ‘Since you’re a woman, it’s 74 cents.’ Working women pay the same — and should be paid the same. Equal pay is essential to attracting good workers and keeping America competitive in this global economy.”
America’s 63 million working women represent nearly half of the country’s workforce, but account for 66 percent of minimum wage workers. About 30 percent of the pay gap arises from the clustering of women in traditionally female jobs, such as clerks, secretaries, cashiers, librarians and child-care workers, which also tend to be low-paid.
Women also predominate in part-time jobs. They make up 68 percent of part-time workers, who earn less money on an hourly basis than do full-time workers. Moreover, part-time workers seldom receive benefits, such as health care or a pension, and are far less likely to belong to a union.
LITTLE CHANGE. Thirty-five years after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act to prohibit pay disparities between men and women performing work requiring similar skill, effort and responsibilities, the pay differential has narrowed by about 40 percent, or 16 cents per dollar earned.
That means the pay gap has closed by less than half a penny per year over the last 35 years.
At the current rate, it will take until the year 2038 for women to reach parity in wages, NCPE says.
In January President Bill Clinton announced a new initiative to ensure that equal pay for equal work becomes reality sooner.
The president earmarked $14 million in his fiscal year 2000 budget to help the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission expand job opportunities for women and end pay discrimination.
“One big reason why the pay gap persists, despite women’s gains in education and experience, is the demeaning practice of wage discrimination in our workplaces,” Clinton said in a radio address Jan. 29. “Too many employers still undervalue and underpay work done by women.”
Because of the pay gap, the average 25-year-old woman who works full-time year-round for 40 years will earn $523,000 less than the average 25-year-old man if current wage patterns continue, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington.
Conditions are worse for women of color, who face both sex and race discrimination. African-American women earn two-thirds of men’s wages. The percentage for Hispanic women is less than 60 percent.
Men outearn women both overall and at every age, on average, according to the institute. The average woman in her earning prime — her early forties — makes only about the same as a man in his late twenties.
At all education levels, women and people of color earn less than white men. Men with a high school education earn nearly as much as women college graduates.
DOUBLE WHAMMY. Older women face a double whammy. Because earnings determine pension amounts and Social Security benefits, women’s economic security in old age is jeopardized.
Women are less likely than men to receive any pension because they more often work part-time or in industries where pension coverage is low or unavailable. Only 30 percent of women receive pension benefits, compared with 48 percent of men, the institute says.
However, this trend is generally not true of women represented by AFSCME, according to the International’s Women’s Rights Department.
“One of the most important economic security issues for women is pension reform,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) says. “Women live on average seven years longer than men and retire with dramatically fewer savings.”
Also, women’s Social Security benefits are lower than men’s because, on average, women earn less and spend 11.5 years out of the workforce caring for children and older relatives.
Schumer has observed, “Women today hold a very precarious place in the economy. They are earning less and saving less. But they have higher costs and greater responsibilities.”
After considering women’s total economic conditions, Schumer concludes, “If we are to remain number one in the world, women must become full partners in the economy. Women have earned the right to share completely in this country’s good fortunes.”
By Carolyn Hughes Crowley
Related Stories:
- Sweet Victory
- Shamed into Paying Higher Wages
