Pay Equity
What is Pay Equity
How You Can Help
Resources
Back to Committees and Advocacy
The NYC League of Women Voters is a member of the Equal Pay Coalition of NYC and, through the New York State League of Women Voters, a member of the NYS Pay Equity Coalition. Through these coalitions and individually we have urged our state and federal elected officials to do the right thing: pass fair pay legislation.
Latest Update: April 20, 2012
Next Monday, April 30, City Council will vote on the Living Wage Bill, which would increase pay to $11.50 an hour (or $10 with benefits) for workers at firms that get $1 million or more in city subsidies. Read more...
What is Pay Equity?
On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act, a law intended to end gender-based pay discrimination. At the time, women were earning, on average, only 59 cents for every dollar earned by men. Today, women earn 77 cents for every $1 earned by men. That means that in nearly 50 years, we've progressed at a rate of only about half a penny a year.
Unequal pay still exists because job titles done predominately by women and people of color have been historically under paid. For example, clerical workers, nurses, and teachers' aides may be paid less than groundskeepers and security staff. This disparity has led to the concept of comparable worth or job title pay equity reform. By using a gender-neutral job evaluation system using factors such as education/training necessary, working conditions, accountability, human relationship skills, and management/supervision different jobs/titles can by evaluated and compared. Legislation would allow such evaluation and this would do much to make equal pay a reality.
Another problem prevalent in many workplaces is the need for worker protection from retaliation for sharing salary information. The Paycheck Fairness Act would allow employees to voluntarily share information without fear of being fired or reprimanded.
Research has shown that pay equity would lift women and people of color out of poverty and help them achieve economic independence.
How You Can Help
In August, the NYC Equal Fair Coalition decided to concentrate its efforts this year on passing a New York State Fair Pay Act. On this web page, we will keep you up-to-date as the legislation makes it way though the Assembly and Senate and at the appropriate time(s) will ask you to join your voice with all the other voices striving to make equal pay a reality.
Resources:
- Equal Pay Coalition NYC
http://www.nywaepcnyc.org/?tag=pay-equity
- New York: Working Women and the State's Wage Gap
http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/DocServer/wf.epd.factsheet.NY.pdf
- Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/Women_in_America.pdf
Back to Top
Back to Committees and Advocacy
