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ADVOCACY FOR PAY EQUITY

PAY EQUITY

Summary of Pay Equity

Pay Equity or equal pay for job titles of comparable worth requires that job titles primarily filled by different sexes be paid comparable wages if the skill and responsibility levels required by the job titles are comparable. Within the workforce of an individual employer, job titles primarily filled by women and people of color (such as nurse aid and food service worker) must be paid comparably to male dominated job titles requiring the same levels of skill, responsibilities and performed under similar working conditions.

At the heart of comparable worth or job-title pay equity reform is the fact that job titles traditionally filled by women and people of color have been systematically undervalued in the marketplace. The net result is that these job titles are commonly paid less than comparable jobs with the same levels of skills and responsibilities but held by white males. For instance, some school districts pay secretaries and teaching assistants (job titles that require associate degrees) less than the cleaners. School nurses in the West Islip school district once started at $27,000, while groundskeepers started at $29,000. In Denver, nurses were found to make less than gardeners.

This bias can be demonstrated and subsequently eliminated by assessing the economic value of different jobs through the use of a gender-neutral job evaluation system. Apples and oranges can be compared by using any common denominator such as vitamins, juice content or calories, etc. Similarly different job titles can be compared using common denominators such as the amount of education required, the responsibility for people (or budgets or resources) etc. For over 70 years, most, if not all, large employers have had job evaluation wage-setting processes in place to relate the common denominator requirements of vastly different job titles to their salaries. This is one of the primary functions of personnel/human resource departments. For more information on how job titles can be compared see the Educational Materials section below.

Federal equal-pay for equal-work legislation prohibits the paying persons of different genders or race/ethnicity differently if they are doing the same work. But there is no protection if you are not doing exactly the same work.
Equal pay can never exist if it is possible to ghettoize women and people of color (and many white men as well) into traditionally female jobs and, therefore, pay them less than their work is worth. This is a family issue that impacts pensions and social security as well as current household income.

Summary of Current Action

In April of 2011, the Assembly passed the package of pay equity bills (listed below in section on Current Bills) as it has done every year since the turn of the century (2000). But before the bills were passed the Republican Assembly members grilled each sponsor with questions which they deemed unanswerable in an attempt to make the sponsors and the issue look foolish. In response the Assembly Democrats held a press conference so that the sponsor of each bill could explain the issue. The resulting press released is in section 6. Assemblymember Rosenthal subsequently appeared on a television news program concerning pay equity.

On December 12, 2011, the Assembly Standing Committees on Labor; Governmental Employees; Governmental Operations; Oversight, Analysis and Investigation; and the Assembly Task Force on Women’s Issues held PUBLIC HEARING on PAY EQUITY. The PURPOSE statement for the hearing reads:

“Almost 50 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, women and minorities continue to suffer the consequences of unequal pay. This hearing will examine wage disparities that continue to exist in New York State and discuss ways to eliminate discriminatory practices.”

Seventeen testimonies were submitted from individuals and organizations such as the Cornell University Institute for Compensation Studies, the State Bar Association, Hunter College, the YWCA, the Equal Pay Coalition of NYC, the New York State United Teachers, Local 1180 of the Communication Workers of America, the Work and Family Legal Center and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. All of the testimonies spoke in favor of the pay equity reform, except the one from the Business Council.

LWVNY submitted testimony as did the New York Pay Equity Coalition (NYSPEC), the Coalition that we work through on this issue (see section on testimony, below).
NYSPEC has scheduled several legislative visits with Assembly members following the LWVNY Lobby Day on January 18th 2012. NYSPEC will continue to work with both Assembly and Senate legislators and their staff to advance good pay equity bills through the legislature for signing by the Governor.

Call to Action: A pay Equity Resource Guide 2012

Current Bills
*To access current bills, click here and type in the bill number, i.e. A1234 or S1234

New York State Pay Equity Bills: The Assembly revised the bills in their pay equity package in the spring 2012 session, improving their clarity, coverage and enforceability. The amended bills (which currently do not have a Senate sponsor or a corresponding “same as” bill in the Senate) are:

A6130A - NYS Fair Pay Act -(Assembly Sponsor: Keith Wright) provides that all who work in NY State, in both the public and private sectors, in job titles that are disproportionately performed by women and/or people of color will receive equal pay with job titles evaluated to be of comparable worth in which white males predominate. This bill also includes protections for employees who choose to disclose their wage rates to other employees (wage transparency) and incorporates strong enforcement mechanisms through the Department of Labor.

A1780A, (Assembly Sponsor: Linda Rosenthal), applies only to employees that work for NY State. Many NYS job titles received comparable worth adjustments in 1987 but no law was put in place to require the State to continue to provide equal pay for job titles of comparable worth. Bill A1780A would require the State to maintain equal pay for comparable worth for the employees in job titles where women and people of color predominate, and provides enforcement through the Civil Service Department.

A6448A- (Assembly Sponsor: Ellen Jaffee)– This bill amends the Civil Service law to establish “comparable worth” for all public sector employees in job titles where women and people of color predominate, and provides enforcement through the Civil Service Department.

A09623- (Assembly Sponsor: Barbara Lifton) – An act directing the Civil Service Commission to study and publish a report evaluating among public employers, the existence of wage disparities related to the job titles segregated by the gender, race and/or national origin of the employees in the job titles. Such study is to use methodologies such as a systematic point factor job evaluation system, that does not undervalue traditionally female and minority job titles. The report will be submitted by January 2014 to the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the assembly, and the temporary president of the senate, the minority leader of the senate and the governor’s office of employee relations.
Note that (A3690/S399), Lifton/Krueger – was formerly a part of the pay equity package but has been eliminated because it was redundant.

Recent Testimony