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.
Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed an equal pay law that advocates are calling one of the nation’s strongest. It strengthens existing laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender, and also includes gender identity. “It really makes Maryland a leader in the equal pay movement,” said Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, in an interview with Vox. Carter helped push the bill through the legislature, along with other advocates.
From a single mother just above the poverty line to a real-estate millionaire. Over her lifetime, the average American woman can expect to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a man with similar credentials and employment. For women of color, that pay gap looks more like a chasm. And while motherhood is often cited as the primary reason for lower earnings over the course of a career, it doesn’t explain why, as occupational segregation falls, women still only make $0.79 for every dollar men do.
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Why Not Getting Married Is Smart Economics For Women via Yes! Magazine
More people than ever before are choosing not to get married. And for women, that can actually be a good thing. (Infographic)
- The Pay Gap Persists. Here Are Five Things Working Mothers Can Do To Close It via The Huffington Post
Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran a pretty bleak article about the persistence of the gender wage gap — and how it is especially pronounced among highly educated women. As the article says, “many white-collar jobs give substantially larger financial rewards to those logging the longest hours and who job-hop often, phenomena that limit white-collar women who pull back for child-rearing.” As co-founder of Fairygodboss, I spend a lot of time thinking about how employers can make better workplaces for women, but I also realize that it’s only half of the story.
- Gillibrand releases new study, argues military not effectively tackling sexual assault via Watertown Daily Times
U.S. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand argued the military wasn’t doing enough to tackle problems with sexual assault, as she released new research on sexual crimes at four major installations. Among them is a high prevalence of crimes against civilians and non-military spouses of service members and children, who don’t fall under Department of Defense statistics. Only 22 percent of the 329 cases reviewed in the study made it to trial, her study found.
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Women & People Of Color Are Experiencing Shocking Pay Gap After Graduating From College via ParentHerald
According to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, young women and 8.1 percent of minorities have wages lower than what white men are getting. The wage gaps and unemployment rates are dimmer for women of color, as well as transgender people of color and disabled individuals of all races.
Donna Seymour, who hails 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 University Women), she is also a member the League of Women Voters, the Equal Pay Coalition, PTA, NOW, and Planned Parenthood, just to name a few.