Equal Pay is the Topic of Non-Profit Kickoff

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April 25, 2006 – Kansas City, MO
Remarks by Meg Harding

Good afternoon. I would like to congratulate Dr. Kunstadter for establishing Buying Influence and most importantly for bringing the issue of equal pay again to the attention of Kansas Citians, by holding this press conference.

Today, April 25, is Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day represents the point into the next year that a woman must work to achieve equal pay with our male counterparts. They work five days a week for 12 months, whereas we women will have to work seven days a week for 16 months to earn an equivalent wage. To match men’s earnings for 2005, we women have to work from January 2005 to April 2006 – four more months.

Forty-three years ago, on June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law (Public Law 88-38). Basically this law prohibits unequal pay for equal or substantially equal work performed by men and women.

Until the early 1960s, the concept of equal pay was rarely heard. Newspapers published separate job listings for men and women. I just turned 60 last summer, and I can remember this. “Jobs were categorized according to sex, with the higher level jobs listed almost exclusively under "Help Wanted—Male." In some cases the ads ran identical jobs under male and female listings — but with separate pay scales. Separate, of course, meant unequal pay. Between 1950 and 1960, women with full time jobs earned on the average between 59–64 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned in the same job. ( The Wage Gap: A History of Pay Inequity and the Equal Pay Act, Borgna Brunner )

Forty-three years ago with the passage of the Equal Pay Act, it became illegal to pay women lower rates for the same job just because of their sex. Gender could no longer make a difference but differences in seniority, merit, the quality or quantity of work, or other considerations could.

And now here we are forty-three years later, still talking about equal pay. A woman, working full time, year round, on the average earns only 77% of men’s earnings. And for women of color the equal pay issue is even greater. African American women earn only 68% and Latinas just 57% of the average earnings of males. Asian Pacific women are earning higher overall, but are still earning 84% of what men are earning.

For almost a century, AAUW -- the American Association of University Women -- has fought for equal pay and to end wage discrimination. AAUW began in 1881 with a meeting of 17 college women who wanted to create an organization to promote education and equal pay for women and girls. In 1913, AAUW released a comprehensive report detailing disparities in equal pay between men and women’s pay in federal government jobs. Since then AAUW has been working to reveal and eliminate pay inequity.

AAUW was first in publicly calling for equal pay. As early as 1922, AAUW’s legislative program called for a reclassification of the U.S. Civil Service and for a repeal of salary restrictions in the Women’s Bureau.

In 1955, AAUW supported a bill introduced by Rep. Edith Green (D-OR) and Rep. Edith Rogers (R-MA) requiring “equal pay for work of comparable value requiring comparable skills.” Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act in 1963 that was a version of this 1955 bill.

AAUW’s current Public Policy Program still includes issues related to equal pay. The AAUW is committed to supporting fairness in compensation, equitable access and advancement in employment, and vigorous enforcement of employment antidiscrimination laws.

Despite the Equal Pay Act and many improvements in women s economic status over the past 40-plus years, wage discrimination still exists. These wage inequalities are not merely a result of women’s qualifications or choices.

Equal pay problems are evident even for new college graduates. Wage discrimination continues despite women’s increased educational attainment. Although more women are attaining bachelor’s and advanced degrees than men, in 1999 the median wages of female college graduates were $17,600 less than those of male graduates. Equal pay? I think not.

Wage discrimination continues despite women’s greater level of experience in the workforce. For five additional years of work experience, women gain only approximately 30 cents per hour compared to $1.20 for white men.

Wage discrimination continues even though women are spending less time out of the workforce raising children. In fact, women spend more time in the workforce than ever before. Sixty-one percent of women with children under the age of two and 78 percent of mothers with school-age children remain in the workforce. Equal pay means no wage discrimination, even for mothers.

With a record 68 million women in the workforce, equal pay issues hurt the majority of American families. Families lose $200 billion in income annually to the wage gap—an average loss of more than $4,000 for each working family. In addition, wage discrimination lowers total lifetime earnings, thereby reducing women’s benefits from Social Security and pension plans.

Although enforcement of the Equal Pay Act as well as other civil rights laws and many years of family-friendly legislation -- the Family and Medical Leave Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act -- and policies such as flex time and telecommuting have increased options to create win-win situations for women and their employers and have helped to narrow the wage gap, significant disparities remain.

AAUW continues to believe that equal pay is a simple matter of justice and strongly supports initiatives that seek to close the persistent and sizable wage gaps between men and women.

For more than a century, AAUW has taken strong positions on issues and influenced legislative debate on critical policy issues – issues affecting women and families -- such as education, Social Security, sex discrimination, civil rights, reproductive choice, affirmative action, Title IX, welfare reform, vocational education, family and medical leave, and health care reform – in addition to equal pay issues I have been focusing on.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a simple matter of justice. Here is what AAUW proposes we do. Hold meetings such as this to raise awareness. Talk with your friends, write letters to the editors of our papers and write your state representatives and senators and federal representatives and senators. Shop at those stores which treat men and women with equity. Support products made by corporations that treat men and women with equity. Go to the AAUW website -- www.aauw.org -- for more information. Information for my presentation comes from that website.

Ladies and Gentlemen, equal pay is a simple matter of justice.