November
25, 2012
Dian
Feinstein
1234
Capital Street
Sacramento,
CA 95060
Dear
Ms. Feinstein:
Citizens of United States of America
pride themselves on being part of this land of opportunity and a country built
on equality. So why are the women in
this country still battling the gender pay gap?
The Paycheck Fairness Act was blocked this year by Senate Republicans. This act would have allowed employees/
colleagues to discuss their salaries without penalties.
In addition would have employed good
morale resulting in happier more productive employees.
In
the last several years the United States Supreme Court has heard numerous class
action lawsuits regarding gender wage discrimination issues. In 2011, the
largest class action law suit to ever be filed and heard by Supreme Court
included 1.5 million female employees of Wal-Mart alleging gender wage
discrimination. Betty Dukes, the main plaintiff in this case claimed she was
paid less than her male coworkers with less seniority, and repeatedly passed
over for managerial promotions. According to Lila Shapiro, a reporter with the
Huffington Post, one victim described the discrimination saying, she confronted
a district manager back in 2003, (after Betty Dukes filed her initial
complaint) when she learned that a less experienced male colleague was earning
more. The manager told her, "That's just the way it is. Men always get
paid more."
This
is typical Wal-Mart management practice and is just one of millions of women who
experienced gender discrimination and was interviewed by the attorneys
representing the class action case.
Another
high profile Supreme Court gender wage discrimination case was filed by Lilly Ledbetter, an employee of Goodyear
Tire and Rubber for nineteen years. She
discovered that she was paid less than her male peers for the same work. Lilly filed a lawsuit against Goodyear which
ultimately ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court where she lost. Unfortunately, she didn't file her complaint fast enough. She worked graveyard shift for Goodyear from
1979 to 1998. During that time she
experienced daily sexual discrimination and harassment. Regardless, she was
awarded a Top Performance Award in 1996, although her pay raises were never in
line with her male coworkers. But Lilly had no idea she was being underpaid,
she had signed a contract with her employer that didn’t allow her to discuss
her wages with other workers. Upon her
retirement, an anonymous person left her a note in her mailbox outlining the
salaries of the men who worked with her and performed the same job. The three men were paid $4,286 to $5,236 per
month. Lilly was paid $3,727 per month.
Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that the complaint she filed needed to be filed within 180 days of the first discrimination
of pay incident, including if the employee didn’t know about it till a later
date. Therefore her complaint had no
legal standing.
Personally, I am sickened by the response
from the Supreme Court. To me this seems
like another form of discrimination in itself.
I now understand why wage discrimination continues to be gainfully swept
under the rug. This allows further discrimination by employers as long as they
can keep their employees in the dark for a short period of time.
There
are several theories and mixed opinions about this issue. Researchers believe the problem exists, while
other people deny it’s an issue to be changed.
Moreover, numbers don’t lie and from the scientific study most recently
completed in 2012 by the American Association of University Women, from data
extracted directly from the 2009 U.S. Department of Educational Statistics. As of 2009 women earn 82
cents for every dollar a man earns, during the first year out of college. With further studies and comparing “apples to
apples”; when women are in identical occupations they earn 7% less than their
male counterparts. And furthermore, African American women earn only 72
cents for every dollar white men earn and Latina women earn 60 cents for every dollar that white men
earn. With these statistics is seems painfully obvious actions need to be taken to protect equal rights for employees in America.
In
1963 when the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act was passed into law, it was to
protect the rights of workers and mandate equal pay for equal work no matter
the person’s sex, color, race, religion, national origin, or disability. According
to the U.S. Employment Equal opportunity Commission; The Equal Pay Act requires
that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The
jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. Job content
(not job titles) determines whether jobs are substantially equal. All forms of
pay are covered by this law, including salary, overtime pay, bonuses, stock
options, profit sharing and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation and holiday
pay, cleaning or gasoline allowances, hotel accommodations, reimbursement for
travel expenses, and benefits. If there is an inequality in wages between men
and women, employers may not reduce the wages of either sex to equalize their
pay.
During
the past 50 years, the ratios for women’s employment education and equal rights
have hugely improved, but still far short from equal. The gender pay gap has been thrown around by
the media since women started working. The
opinion that the pay gap is largely exaggerated is simply not true. As unfortunate as the reality is,
stereotyping of men being worth more, working more efficiently, having greater
competence, deserving more pay because of their head of household status or
wealth status, has been happening since women began working. These perceptions perpetuate themselves and
result in men and women both valuing men’s labor at a higher pay. Though neither men nor women would admit to
these opinions of value because risk of being outside the social norm or being
labeled sexist. As a matter of fact it
has been studied extensively by psychologists at universities such as Stanford,
Princeton, University of California Santa Barbara, Southern Illinois University
of Edwardsville and Southern Illinois University of Carbondale to name a few.
Still
there are numerous factors that create the consistent problem, such as pay
expectations, which tend to be lower for women.
According to a Kent State University, women view their own worth as less
than men view their worth, when they negotiate pay during the hiring process.
Women
have been devalued for thousands of years as suggested from the Old Testament
passage and shows how far we have come.
The
Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, If anyone makes a
special vow to dedicate persons to the Lord by giving equivalent values, set
the value of male between the ages of 20 and 60 at 50 shekels of silver,
according to the sanctuary shekel; and if it is a female, set her value at 30
shekels. -Leviticus
27:1-4
As
I look forward to completing my college education, it is clear to me that I
will need to do my due diligence in researching my career’s salary data and be
confident in my skills and in my pursuit to negotiate a fair salary.
The
consequences of gender wage gap can be detrimental to the women and men in our
society. Many households depend on one
women’s salary, whether it’s a single women, mother, wife or caregiver. Especially with the recession, there are more
men out of work then women.
Why
should women have to work longer and harder to make the same wages, to earn the
same Social Security, to contribute the same amount to retirement, to pay back
the same amount of education debt and to support their families?
Sincerely,
Kelly
Finneran
1234
Mary Way
Soquel,
CA 95073
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