Equal Pay for Equal Work

Flipping through the channels during lunch I stop at C-Span. Yesterday Hillary Clinton, today Senator Barbara Mikulski from Maryland. 

Hillary and Lilly

Mikulski’s speech was a call for the Senate to vote in favor of women’s rights by promoting “Equal Pay for Equal Work” through the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S.181).

This bill was previously voted down by just two votes and  President Bush was threatening to veto it. Mikulski said that tomorrow (Thurs, Jan 14, 2009) there would be quite a debate about this resurrected bill. 

What?!

What is there to debate?!

Let me see… I have no idea what anyone makes at my office but I only have 180 days–from the day that I was paid less for the same job–to file a formal complaint? That is just silly. In April of 2008 the Republicans protested the bill because they were afraid too many lawsuits would follow. 

What?!

Isn’t that the idea? If women aren’t getting equal pay and their employer doesn’t rectify it, isn’t their legal course of action to sue?

Unfortunately, suing is one of the ways things get done in the US simply because our pocketbooks always speak loudest (no big surprise that electric cars finally started getting publicity when gas prices shot up to $4/gal and the Detroit Auto show is promoting fuel efficiency the year they asked for a bailout).

Mikulski stated that women currently only make 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This has changed very little in the last 30-40 years.

Over the holidays I learned from two professors in the family that women in academia (professors) make significantly less than a male counterpart who does the exact same job. I was shocked!

Click here for statistics (see page 3)

The problem is that even if people find out that professors make unequal salaries, of course a man isn’t going to demand that his salary is lowered to become equal to that of women and the women don’t want to risk their jobs.

Do you know if you are making the same salary/wage as your male counterpart?

Take action by contacting your local Senator today. It is easy and it really only takes a minute. Express that you would like them to vote in favor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

 

Resources:

GovTrack: A civic project to track congress

PA Editors Blog: Political affairs magazine

Nature News: German Professor in Sex Discrimination Battle

UBC Planning and Institutional Research: Statistical Analysis of UBC Faculty Salaries

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Female Professors at U. of Texas-Austin Earn $9,000 Less Than Male Peers