Fair pay matters to all of us

As Lilly Ledbetter has reminded us, “…inequity in the workplace hurts not only whoever experiences that discrimination, but in turn hurts their families, and in the end, harms us all.”  

From my years as a public sector employee working with business, industry and government officials, I understand that no one person or organization sets out to purposefully discriminate against an employee.  
It just happens.

Or, does it?  

Our nation reflects the principle of equal justice under the law.  

We have federal and state laws, organizational policies and manuals, pay scales and proscribed practices that serve as preventive guidelines.  

Despite such protections, women in the U.S. are paid 77 cents per dollar paid to men performing the same work.  

A myriad of factors lie behind these global figures,  i.e. women enter the workforce in lower-paying jobs; women step-out for child-bearing and rearing duties and primary caregiver for ailing spouses and parents; women trail successful spouses taking plug-and-play jobs as available; etc.

Some see these as excuses, some see them as reasons for pay rate disparity.
Gone are the days, I hope, when women were asked at initial interviews, what our family planning goals and ‘methods’ were, what our husbands did, or if we had none, what would happen to our career loyalty if or when we married, etc.

Today’s employers, search committees and hiring supervisors have no good excuse for remarks, questions or initial salary placement decisions that violate equal employment opportunity and civil rights rules.  

So today I worry less about “systems” that leave the door open to pay discriminations.  Capable management, training and vigilance can and should address those when they occur.   

I am concerned more about insufficient political will, latent bias and unanswered calls for innovative means to address a larger panoply of American family challenges that unaddressed, yield the numbers mentioned above, i.e. loss of solid middle-class salaried career opportunities, rising cost of health care services that lead children and families away from cost-efficient and effective primary care, effects of reneging on life-long pensions and savings plans, and not least is an apparent drift away from that which binds us in this great democratic experiment, toward the “isms” that separate us.
While these ills affect both men and women, they exacerbate the challenge of bringing needed equity to pay.

As challenging as the current U.S. environment is, the world stage presents the very best and the very worst of news related to ‘fair pay.’  

Pulitzer prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn paint a picture of a brighter future in Half the Sky: Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide (2009).  
While there remains much to do to free women from lives where cultures support female infanticide, mercy killings, genital cutting, child sex slavery, etc., some countries begin to recognize, if not a moral value, an economic value in supporting entrepreneurship of women, and thus the value of healthy and well-educated girls.

The question of pay equity reminds me of the question of a woman’s right to vote.
Not even 100 years ago women were jailed, beaten, force-fed fluids till they vomited, and deemed insane – all for demanding a right to vote.

A psychiatrist in the trial of suffragette Alice Paul, pushed back to President Woodrow Wilson and others’ call to institutionalize her.

“Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.”  The HBO “Iron Jawed Angels” tells this story and provides an apt reminder that our opportunities in this world are tied inexorably to our right and obligation to vote.  

There are no good excuses not to exercise this right for which Americans died, and are still dying around the globe.

No more than Rosa Parks’ bus ride, Alice Paul’s voting rights movement, Karen Silkwood’s call for corporate transparency, Susan Butcher’s first and record-setting win of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, or Sandra Day O’Connor’s ascendance to the US Supreme Court, today’s women are courageous, not crazy.

What can you do? My response reflects my personal and professional bias about the value of education.  

So…Speak Out for the importance of education for women AND men, because education leads to opportunities and opportunity changes everything. Encourage others to come to school, stay in school, seek help when needed, work harder than ever  before and keep your eyes on a goal of life-long-learning.  

The American Council of Education reminds us “colleges and universities teach the people who solve the problems and prepare the people who change the world.” Stay in school and prepare to change the world.