Public Employee Press

Equal pay for equal work


By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

A woman's work is never done but DC 37 is leading the fight for pay equity so employers compensate women dollar for dollar as they do men. The union is advocating at the bargaining table and in City Hall, Albany and Washington to demand an end to wage discrimination, which hurts working families.

"It's time to level the playing field, end wage disparity and finally close the earnings gap that has kept women and their children down for too long," said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido.

Last March, DC 37 launched its Equal Pay for Equal Work campaign during International Women's History Month with a women's rally March 25 at union headquarters that featured guest speakers AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Laura Reyes and Public Advocate Letitia James and drew over 400 supporters.

DC 37 backs several bills including one by state Sens. Michelle Titus and Diane Savino that would end wage secrecy and other legal loopholes employers use to pay women less. AFSCME, DC 37's parent union, backs the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Healthy Families Act for national paid sick leave and the Family Medical Insurance Leave Act, which creates a paid insurance program. The union also backs increasing the minimum wage and protections for pregnant workers. When lawmakers enact this legislation, equal pay
Credit: Labor Project for Working Families for women will become a reality.

Some 50 years ago, the Equal Pay Act was signed but women are still earning less than men for the same work. Some even blame women, saying they should negotiate for better salaries during the interview process. But studies show women who ask for pay increases often don't get them and are perceived negatively.

Recently the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw evidence of broad patterns of systemic wage inequities and discrimination by the Bloomberg administration against minority women who work as administrative managers. The Communication Workers of America Local 1180 filed the complaint with the EEOC on behalf of 1,000 black women and Latinas who are being paid less and have had fewer opportunities for promotions than white male managers. New York City could be liable to pay $246 million for six years of back wages and damages. If the case is not resolved in arbitration, the U.S. Dept. of Justice could sue the city.

Women are primary breadwinners in 40 percent of American households. Wage discrimination disproportionately impacts their lives and that of their children: mothers who work full time earn just 71 cents for every dollar paid to working fathers; single moms earn 58 cents on the dollar, according to a 2015 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families. Working moms have less money to buy necessities like food, gas, rent and child care.

Female New York City employees earn 82 cents for every dollar a male earns; women are underpaid $8,250 annually in New York, says www.PowHerNY.org. Nationally women earn 78 cents on the dollar. Women are being underpaid and discriminated against at work whether overtly or implicitly, a 2014 Essence magazine study found. Black women earn 64 cents and Latinas earn just 56 cents for every dollar white males with similar levels of education and experience earn.

To earn what their male counterparts earned in 2014, white women had to work until April 17, black women until July, and Latinas until October (see chart).

Over her lifetime, a woman loses about a million dollars in wages and is twice as likely to die in poverty. Pay equity legislation could change that, giving women, children, and the economy a much-needed boost.