Pay equity needs to move forward in Michigan
AAUW-Ann Arbor Branch Members visit withstate Rep. Jeff Irwin in Lansing during Equal Pay Day.
At the rally we joined other state AAUW members and constituents from numerous other organizations (League of Women Voters, UAW, NAACP and AARP among them) to advocate for equal pay for women. We noticed that attendance at the rally had increased significantly this year, and learned that sponsors for the event had grown from 15 in 2011 to 24 in 2012,
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In Michigan, many constituents and leaders do recognize the injustice of unequal pay and are speaking out about the problems it causes. They note that many families are dependent on the incomes of women either because the woman is the sole or primary breadwinner or because the husband’s income is insufficient to support the household. Gov. Snyder sent a statement to the rally saying that he supports pay equity for women, not only because it is fair to women and will help families, but also because it will help the Michigan economy.
Several legislators sponsoring the pay equity bills pending in the Senate and House spoke at the rally.
Rebecca Warren, Democratic senator from Ann Arbor and sponsor of two bills currently before the Senate Committee on Economic Development, addressed the group. Bill sponsors Joan Bauer and Dian Slavens spoke in favor of bills pending in the House.
Bills cover actions ranging from strengthening the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to make it clear that sex-based wage discrimination is illegal to increasing penalties for wage discrimination based on gender to providing transparency in pay for similar employees.
Four pay equity bills were introduced in the Senate in April 2011 and four in the House in May 2011. The next step is to move these bills out of committee (where they have languished for almost a year) to be voted on by the legislators. At that point constituents can actively contact their legislators about moving pay equity forward, and monitor their votes. Hopefully, Governor Snyder, too, will work with legislators to embrace his support of pay equity. After all, women’s issues are moving to the forefront of local as well as national politics. This was evident in the increased participation in Michigan’s Equal Pay Day Rally.
Margaret Fisher is past president of the the Ann Arbor Branch of the American Association of University Women.
Comments
outdoor6709
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 12:46 p.m.
Because of the overwhelming number of responses to my previous question by supporters of equal pay legislation, I am comvinced this is a us vs. them argument meant to divide and conquer in an election year.
leaguebus
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 1:33 a.m.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/the-gender-pay-gap-persists-especially-for-the-rich/ Read the story above and quit the spin that women's pay and men's pay is apples and oranges. Lily Ledbetter made 40% less than her male counterparts.
outdoor6709
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 12:40 a.m.
Someone needs to explain the issue better. Does equal pay mean the male truck driver and the female dispatcher make the same or does it mean the male and female laywer make the same. Since this is an election year is this just a you vs. them issue to up the vote.
Macabre Sunset
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 5:22 p.m.
I don't think this proposal goes far enough. The bill should require men to spend the same number of hours as women raising children, and, yes, even birthing babies and breastfeeding. It's not just about money.
Unusual Suspect
Fri, May 4, 2012 : 12:14 a.m.
As long as I don't have to cook or do the laundry.
Jerry Boggs
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 2:03 p.m.
One more law is always needed to close the gender wage gap. Actually none is needed. Women's "77 cents to men's dollar" doesn't mean, as pay-equity advocates want us to believe, women are paid less than men in the same jobs everywhere in the country. Nor does it mean that, even more incredibly in the vein of the stereotype "men are stronger than women," every woman earns 23% less than every man, perhaps leading some of the more benighted to think Diane Sawyer of ABC News earns less than the young man walking back and forth on the street wearing a "Pizzas $5" sign. The figures are arrived at by comparing the sexes' median incomes. They refer to the point at which 50% of workers earn above the figures and 50% below (which means, among other things, that a lot of women outearn a lot of men). They don't account for the number of hours worked each week, experience, seniority, training, education or even the job description itself. They compare all women to all men, not people in the same job with the same experience. So a veteran male software designer's salary is weighed against a first-year female teacher's income. Ignoring this over the years has been less than productive: No law yet has closed the gender wage gap — not the 1963 Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, not Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, not the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, not the 1991 amendments to Title VII, not affirmative action (which has benefited mostly white women, the group most vocal about the wage gap - http://tinyurl.com/74cooen), not diversity, not the countless state and local laws and regulations, not the horde of overseers at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and not the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.... Nor will a "paycheck fairness" law work. That's because pay-equity advocates ignore the effects of female AND male behavior: See "Will the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Help Women?" at http://malemattersusa.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/will-the-ledbetter-fair-pay-act-help-
dotdash
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 4:30 p.m.
Jerry, part of what you say is true (some of the data is based on a comparison of median earnings), but more detailed studies have shown, and I quote from the GAO: Even accounting for factors such as occupation, industry, race, marital status and job tenure, reports the GAO, working women today earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. This pay gap has persisted for the past two decades, remaining relatively consistent from 1983-2000. So the fact that men and women may have different occupations or work in different industries does NOT explain the difference. There are many studies showing that even in the same jobs, women tend to make less than men. This is not sleight of hand with numbers; this is a real effect.
Stephen Landes
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 4:15 p.m.
To add to "Unusual Suspect" -- no law can ever be devised to balance all the elements in the equation of what constitutes "equal work".
Unusual Suspect
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 3:09 p.m.
Excellent post, Jerry. These people have been using cherry-picked data for decades. The only significant data in this discussion is that which compares a man and a woman in the same job, at the same company, at the same point in time, with the same experience, and with the same tenure. Anything else is apples and oranges.
Unusual Suspect
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 1:36 p.m.
I will point out that the author cited zero sources for any claims in the piece.
fishjamaica
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 1:28 p.m.
Republicans are doing their best to create pay equality. They wan't everyone working for minimum wage.
Unusual Suspect
Thu, May 3, 2012 : 3:07 p.m.
Democrats want to give everybody minimum wage for not even working.