By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
This political issue has been called by a sundry of different names: equal pay, comparable worth, pay disparity, wage gap and pay equality to mention just a few. But, whatever name one assigns to this discriminatory practice, the bottom line remains — it’s grossly unfair.
The Far Right has demonized President Obama for a myriad of policy decisions. But, history will show that the first political inequity that the Obama administration chose to address was the contentious issue of pay disparity between the sexes.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law on January 30, 2009; this would become the first new law of the Obama administration, a mere 10 days after being sworn into office.
Without question, the nation owes Lilly Ledbetter a considerable debt of gratitude for helping to bring this particular issue to the national forefront.
Ledbetter worked for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for almost 20 years in a position held by very few other women. She discovered that she was being paid less than men with the same job, and had less seniority, after receiving an anonymous note with that information.
She sued Goodyear for pay discrimination in federal court and won a jury verdict of more than $3 million, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling.
But even with the passage of Ledbetter, the pay gap remains a stubbornly persistent problem. Here are some facts and figures to know:
• Women make just 77 cents for every $1 made by men. Over a woman’s career, that disparity leads to more than $430,000 in lost wages for an individual woman.
• The amount a woman loses to the pay gap could feed a family of four for 37 years. A woman could also use that money to buy seven degrees at a four-year public university or 14 new cars.
• The pay gap starts early. One year out of college, women make 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers for doing similar work.
• The wage gap grows over a woman’s career. For working women in their 20s, “the annual wage gap is $1,702. In the last five years before retirement, however, the annual wage gap jumps to $14,352.”
• A woman’s pay, on average, stops growing when she turns 39. For men, wage growth doesn’t stop until age 48.
• The pay gap plagues higher-paying jobs. Despite women earning more advanced degrees, the pay gap hasn’t closed for specialized professions. Female doctors earn $350,000 less than men over their careers.
Female CEOs earn 69 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, and female lawyers make tens of thousands of dollars less than their male peers.
I think that President Obama put it best in his first inauguration speech when he declared, “Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.”