Economic equity news is a weekly round-up of articles by Donna Seymour of AAUW-NYS that features our core values of poverty solutions, opportunity and access, workplace fairness, healthy lives, equal pay and representation at all tables. Sign up for our mailing list to receive this directly to your inbox.
- Capitol Hill Can Learn a Thing or Two From California’s New Equal Pay Law via the Huffington Post
In many ways, California’s new equal pay law is similar to the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 862/H.R. 1619), not only in protecting against retaliation, but also in clarifying rules around employees’ ability to recover wages based on gender discrimination and employers’ ability to defend themselves from such allegations. A win-win, which is part of the reason why the California Chamber of Commerce supported the bill. If only their national counterpart would follow suit. SoCalifornia has an updated equal pay law, but the nation does not. What can Congress learn from California? Plenty.
- Getting to the Bottom of Harvard Graduates’ Gender Pay Gap via The Atlantic
If the women of the Ivy League aren’t making as much money as their male peers, what hope does everyone else have? Kevin Carey at The New York Times recently crunched some numbers from a federal data set that considered the eventual earnings of students who received federal financial aid to enroll in American colleges and universities. He reported that among Harvard students whose parents’ incomes were low enough to qualify them for aid, men make vastly more than women 10 years after graduation. In general, American women make 79 cents on the dollar compared to men.For those who attended Harvard, the disparity is even worse: female alums make 63 cents for every dollar male classmates earn. That’s about what the pay gap was for women in the 1960s.
- Even Superstars Aren’t Safe from the Gender Pay Gap: An Open Letter to Jennifer Lawrence via AAUW.org
When you wrote about your experience with the gender pay gap earlier this week, you added that you “aren’t exactly relatable.” Sure, you have an Oscar and a few other awards under your belt. But when it comes to the gender pay gap, your problems are all too relatable. The gender pay gap hurts women from all walks of life, to the tune of more than $500,000 average over the course of a career. You may be the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, but even you aren’t immune. You experienced this gap firsthand when you found out your American Hustle co-stars were paid more than you were.
It’s a series of disheartening images that serve an inspiring purpose. The video, featuring an array of women, including German chancellor Angela Merkel and Harry Potter star-turned-UN women’s envoy Emma Watson, is part of a campaign launched by the magazine to elevate more women to positions of power worldwide.
Donna Seymour, who hales from the (far upstate) North Country of NYS, has spent 40 plus years advocating for children, women and family issues, equity, sustainability, and social justice issues. Currently serving as the Public Policy VP for AAUW-NYS (the American Association Universality Women), she also is a member the League of Women Voters, the Equal Pay Coalition, PTA, NOW, and Planned Parenthood, just to name a few.