NYS Bill Update:
| Number: | NY [R] AB 1554 – Updated (Status 05/28/2014) |
| Sponsor: | Kolb (MS) |
| Title: | AN ACT to amend the labor law and the tax law, in relation to establishing the family and medical leave independent savings account act |
| Abstract: | Add Art 32 SS1000 – 1003, Lab L; amd S612, Tax L Establishes the “”Family and medical leave independent savings account act””; provides a tax credit for employee compensation deferred to such accounts. |
| Status: | held for consideration in labor – 05/27/2014 |
The Pay Gap for Women Starts at Graduation Do women make less than men because they choose to go into less lucrative professions and work fewer hours, or do they make less because they’re discriminated against no matter which field they choose and how hard they work?
New data from Harvard University’s most recent graduating class suggests that the answer to that crucial question is yes and yes. Women choose fields that don’t pay as well, but even within highly paid fields such as finance and engineering, they get paid less than men.
The fact that a distinct pay gap is evident right out of undergraduate school is more than a little sobering. At the age of 21 or 22, it’s extremely unlikely that the male graduates had somehow acquired relevant experience that merits above-average pay, or that the women are working fewer hours to accommodate their families.
The survey found that men were about twice as likely to choose finance, technology, or engineering—all highly paid fields—for their first jobs. Eleven percent of women chose engineering or technology, versus 19 percent of men. Ten percent of women chose finance, compared with 24 percent of men.
Women were twice as likely to choose public service or not-for-profits, which don’t pay as well. Equal numbers of men and women chose consulting.
Dads who do housework have more ambitious daughters Parents’ actions influence children more than words on gender equality, UBC study says
Maybe you’ve told your daughter she can grow up to be an engineer or CEO if she wants to, but she may not really believe it if her dad doesn’t cook or clean, a new study suggests.
A group of psychologists at the University of British Columbia found that when a father performs a greater share of traditionally female household chores such as cooking, cleaning and childcare, his school-aged daughter is less likely to say she wants to pursue a stereotypical female career such as nursing, teaching or staying at home with the kids, and more likely to aspire to more gender-neutral (and often higher-paying) careers, such as becoming a doctor or lawyer.
A mother’s stated views on gender equality were linked to her children’s views. However, a father’s share of housework made a difference even if both he and the girl’s mother explicitly endorse gender equality, reported the study that will be published in the journal Psychological Science this week.
A quick guide to equal pay certificates in Minnesota One of the new requirements of the Women’s Economic Security Act is that certain contractors must provide equal pay certificates in order to conduct business with the State of Minnesota or certain governmental agencies. See H.F. 2536; H.F. 3172. The equal pay certificate requirements of the law will be codified at Minn. Stat. § 363A.44.
Michigan Raises Minimum Wage to $9.25, Ties to Inflation Michigan is poised to raise its minimum wage by 25 percent over the next four years to $9.25 an hour, as Republicans controlling state government moved to head off a November ballot measure that could have raised pay even more.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday he will quickly sign legislation raising the state’s minimum wage to $9.25 an hour by 2018 after the state House and Senate approved the increase.
The current hourly minimum wage is $7.40.
The Republican-led Legislature acted one day before a group of labor and community organizers planned to present thousands of petitions signatures calling for a Michigan ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage even more — to $10.10 an hour.
Are black women MIA in the equal pay debate? Black women are among the lowest paid workers in the United States. In many professions they’re near the bottom of the pay scale. They earn less than white men – on average just 64 cents for every dollar paid to white men – and less than women overall, who earn on average 77 cents for every dollar earned by white men. And despite far outnumbering black men in the labor market, black women also earn less than their low-wage male counterparts.
Nevertheless, African-American women are heads of households in larger numbers than any other group. Some 4,078,457U.S. households are headed by black women, and 38.1 percent, or 1,553,892, of those families live below the poverty level, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families. An analysis by the organization using U.S. Census Bureau figures clearly indicates that black women are holding down jobs that don’t pay them enough to adequately support their families. Many of these women work in low-wage service industry jobs. Even in black households headed by two married parents, more than 50 percent of married mothers bring in half or more than half of their families’ income, the analysis found.
These numbers have far-reaching implications for black families, according to an issue brief, “How pay in equity hurts women of color,” prepared by the Center for American Progress.
Google ends silence on workforce diversity, confirms that it is largely white and male “We’ve always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google,” the world’s biggest search-advertising company said in a blog post. “We now realize we were wrong, and that it’s time to be candid about the issues.”
The disclosure that Mountain View-based Google is 70 percent male and 61 percent white comes after the discussion about gender diversity in Silicon Valley technology hit a boil last year. Google said it felt it had to disclose its numbers to nurture solutions to the imbalances.
It’s not just Jill Abramson: Women everywhere are getting pushed out of journalism Technology has made it harder for women to survive, and thrive, in journalism. And that has big consequences for the quality of news we receive.
Admittedly, the cards have always been stacked against women. As Washington Post reporter Lydia DePillis aptly pointed out on her 100 percent men Tumblr, every single editor of The New Republic has been male. Almost every single newspaper chain is headed by a man, save Gannett.
The Highest-Paid Woman CEO Makes Less Than A Third Of The Highest-Paid Man CEO of TJX Carol Meyrowitz, which owns T.J. Mxx and HomeGoods, was the highest-paid woman in the survey and gets a compensation package of $20.6 million. The top-paid male executive, Lawrence Ellison of Oracle, gets a package valued at $76.9 million, more than three and a half times more. Meyrowitz ranks at number 27 on the list of 300 in terms of top pay.
The numbers are somewhat hard to parse because there are just so few women to begin with. Just 14 companies out of the 300 that the Journal looked at have women as chief executives. Eight of those women earned more than the median CEO pay and six earned less. But analyses that include a larger pool of companies still find a pay gap. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that female CEOs made less than 80 percent of what male ones made in 2013, although that’s up from 69 percent two years ago. The Bloomberg analysis found that not just looking at CEOs, but at the highest paid executives at S&P 500 companies, women are paid 18 percent less than men.
There are also some stark examples of unequal pay within companies. Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer made less than a man working under her who ended up being fired. General Motors’s CEO Mary Barra will make less than half of what her outgoing male predecessor made this year and less than what he will get as a senior advisor after his departure, although the company has noted her long-term compensation will represent a 60 percent increase over his.
Stop Mansplaining the ‘Boy Crisis’ – Sexism Still Holds Women Back Despite gains for girls in school, a hard look at workforce research reveals that, no, the matriarchy isn’t gunning for men.
If the economy really was a pull-yourself-up-by-the-
AAUW: The Child Care Conundrum Should working moms lean in, opt out, or something in between? When it comes to careers, motherhood is a condition that, rightly or wrongly, is blamed for lower earnings, slower advancement, and the absence of women from the workforce. At the crux of every discussion about the “mommy wars” or “having it all” is the overwhelming, expensive mess that is child care in the United States — and the many difficulties women who work outside the home face because of it.
Bill makes it easier for new mothers to treat ‘baby blues’ The Maternal Depression Bill (S.7234/A.9610) would provide education promote screening and treatment referrals for postpartum depression and other maternal depression disorders, creating the state’s first system-wide screening and referral procedure. Prenatal depression, “baby blues,” postpartum anxiety, and postpartum psychosis are all examples of maternal depression that would be addressed under this bill.
Health Department proposes first-ever youth sexual health plan New York’s first-ever Youth Sexual Health Plan was unveiled last week to combat the growing epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies among young people.
“Reproductive and sexual health are key issues for adolescents and young adults,” acting state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said. “Providing accurate and comprehensive information to protect adolescents’ health and prepare them for responsible decision making is a public health priority.”
Hawaii Raises Minimum Wage to $10.10 an Hour Hawaii has raised its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, putting the state among the first to meet President Obama’s goal of increasing the minimum wage nationwide.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed the minimum wage bill into law in a ceremony Friday, marking the first time Hawaii’s minimum wage will be raised from $7.25 since 2007.
“I always thought it’s not a minimum wage, it’s a survival wage,” Abercrombie said. “And in today’s world, that minimum wage is not a survival wage, certainly in Hawaii.”
Hawaii is the third state this year to increase its minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, following Connecticut andMaryland, said Jack Temple, policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project.
Participants in Greek System Thrive After College, Gallup Finds Fraternity and sorority members were more likely than peers who were not in a Greek organization to thrive in their career and personal well-being after college, data from Gallup and Purdue University’s recent survey of graduates finds. The report, which Gallup produced with two organizations involved in the Greek life, the National Panhellenic Conference and the North-American Interfraternity Conference, is a subset (likely to be the first of many) of Gallup and Purdue’s first-ever survey of 30,000 graduates, which the organizations released last month.
According to the new findings, 43 percent of fraternity and sorority members who are work full time are engaged in the work place, compared with 38 percent of all other college graduates. And graduates who participated in Greek life were more likely than others to be thriving in all five of the aspects of well-being documented by the Gallup-Purdue Index.
New Federal Database Will Track Americans’ Credit Ratings, Other Financial Information As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives – including their Social Security numbers – in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of previously stated policy.
Millennials squeezed out of buying a home Just 36% of Americans under the age of 35 own a home, according to the Census Bureau. That’s down from 42% in 2007 and the lowest level since 1982, when the agency began tracking homeownership by age.
It’s not all their fault. Millennials want to buy homes — 90% prefer owning over renting, according to a recent survey from Fannie Mae.
But student loan debt, tight lending standards and stiff competition have made it next to impossible for many of these younger Americans to make the leap.