If there was any doubt about whether discrimination against women in the workforce persists, Minnesota Republicans have stepped in to clear up the debate. In a shocking attack against working women, Minnesota Republicans have introduced legislation that would repeal the 1984 Local Government Pay Equity Act (LGPEA), which ensures that women and men are paid the same. HF7/SF159 not only repeals LGPEA, but countless other mandates on local governments, including grants for libraries, regulations on part-time police officers, and agricultural programs for low-income farmers.
The repeal is backed by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which wrote in a December report on public employee compensation, "State pay equity/comparable worth law should be repealed. Its purpose is outdated, and requiring governments to correct perceived 'errors' in labor markets based on bureaucratic and subjective assessments of the relative value of government jobs is an unnecessary and costly mandate."
This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. A drastic pay gap persists not only in Minnesota, but across the country, where women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. This gap is no small number – it translates to a loss of over $10,000 a year. In Minnesota, women still earn less than men, and the divide is even greater among women of color. White women earned 76 cents for every dollar that men earn, while Native American women earned 69 cents to the dollar, African American women 61 cents and Hispanic women earned 51 cents to the dollar. These numbers were for all workers in Minnesota, not only workers in the public sector, reported the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota and the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
And the Office of Minnesota Management and Budget found that in 2010, there was almost a 10 percent inequity in the wages that women were paid in public sector jobs. The MMB directs municipalities, school districts, counties and other public employers to correct pay differences. "Before the inequities were corrected, the average pay for females in the examples was $16.27 per hour. After adjustments were made, the average pay for females was $17.86 per hour. Prior to the adjustments, females were paid 83% of what males were paid, but after the adjustments, the wage gap narrowed and females were paid 91% of what males were paid," wrote the authors of the report.
This effort by the MMB to correct wage inequities is exactly what Minnesota Republicans are fighting against. This attack is a sharp departure from the state’s legacy of actively working to close the gender pay gape. Indeed, Minnesota was the first state to pass pay equity laws. In 1982, it passed the State Government Pay Equity Act, which covered state employees, and in 1984 the LGPEA was passed to cover all public employees in the state. The law protects the right of cities to give performance raises and pay more to workers who have seniority, but it also says that there cannot be substantial pay differences between jobs held by men and jobs held by women. Each public institution must track the pay of its employees and report the figures to the state every three years. If they fail to report this data or correct any inequities, they risk losing their portion of government aid.
Shannon Drury, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for Women, said, "Pay equity laws won’t be archaic until pay discrimination ends. As long as discrimination exists, these measures will remain necessary to ensure compliance. Repealing this law takes money out of women’s wallets. It’s that simple."
The introduction of HF7/SF159 comes on the heels of the failure of the Paycheck Fairness Act to pass in the Senate. The act would have helped to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act with harsher penalties against employers who discriminate against workers on the basis of gender. The Senate’s failure to remedy income inequality is not representative of American voters, 84 percent of whom said they supported such a bill.
The consequences of gender pay disparities are felt within the homes of millions of American women, particularly during these difficult economic times, when many more families depend on female breadwinners. Indeed, women make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of American families with children depend on this income for survival. "Why the legislature would repeal this measure in such a difficult economic climate is beyond me," said Drury. "Women are now the majority of the American workforce, due in part to the recession’s disproportionate toll on men."
Legal Momentum recently reported about the Census Bureau’s release of five-year data from the American Community Survey (2005 to 2009) that broke down occupational data by gender. The data demonstrates a stark contrast in occupations held by men and women, with many fields highly segregated by gender. On average, the median pay in jobs dominated by men are higher than in those dominated by women, and for jobs held by both men and women, median pay for men almost always exceeds that for women.
Remapping Debate, a non-profit media project dedicated to reporting on domestic public policy issues, graphed the data to highlight gender segregation and pay disparities in the American workforce. Within the highest-paying top 25 occupations for men, women workers made up less than 50 percent of the total workers. In 10 of these occupations, women workers made up less than 20 percent of the total. In 23 of the 25 cases, median earnings of women were less than 90 percent than those of men. And in more than 100 occupations, men are more than 90 percent of the workers.
This data affirms the critical need for Minnesota’s Local Government Pay Equity Act and other legislation across the nation that combats gender pay disparities. Legal Momentum has worked tirelessly to further employment rights, particularly through our Equality Works Program, which uses policy initiatives and impact litigation to challenge discrimination and expand opportunities for women working in historically male-dominated fields such as the skilled trades and firefighting. We strive to strengthen TANF and the social safety net, support job training, and combat workplace discrimination. These initiatives our motivated by our belief that workplace equality is an essential component of ensuring economic security for all women and families. We will continue to fight until all women receive full economic equality.
- Check out the New York Time’s map of the gender pay gap, state by state here.
