Women Deserve Equal Pay for Equal Work

Women continue to earn less than men. In 2012, the last year for which we have data, women earned 76.5 cents for each dollar earned by a man—a figure which has remained essentially unchanged since 2001. The statistics for women of color are even more staggering, with African American women earning 64 cents and Latinas only 54 cents for each dollar earned by a white man.

This practice is bad for women, bad for families, and bad for our local economies.

April 8 was recognized as Equal Pay Day because it marks the date a woman’s salary finally catches up with a man’s salary from the previous year. Additional “Equal Pay Days” throughout the year mark the even higher discrepancies for particular groups of women: June 12 for mothers, July 16 for African American women, and November 12 for Latinas. The Senate voted down the Paycheck Fairness Act earlier this year, which would have taken a critical step in the right direction to eliminate the gender wage gap.

But for the first time ever, the Senate last week agreed to move on to a full debate of the Paycheck Fairness Act, by a vote of 73-25. We’ve passed the first of many hurdles, but it's not over – this is the Senate’s chance to do the right thing.

Act now! Urge your Senators to vote in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act and a fair up or down vote.

Paycheck Fairness Act: Background

The most blatant forms of pay discrimination based on gender are illegal, but current law is too narrow to serve as an effective deterrent or tool for enforcement. The Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA) would help narrow the gender pay gap by closing some of the loopholes in current law and give employees the legal tools they need to challenge the wage gap itself. Specifically, the PFA would:

• Require employers to demonstrate that wage differentials between men and women holding the same position and doing the same work stem from factors other than sex;
• Prohibit retaliation against workers who inquire about their employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages, and permit reasonable comparisons between employees within clearly defined geographical areas to determine fair wages;
• Strengthen penalties for equal pay violations;
• Provide guidelines to show employers how to evaluate jobs with the goal of eliminating unfair disparities;
• Encourage proactive enforcement of equal pay laws by re-instating the collection of wage-related data and providing training for the workers who enforce our equal pay laws.
• Modernize the Equal Pay Act to make it more in line with the class action procedures available under Title VII.

President Obama has signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries. We must extend these same basic protections to all working women!

As faithful advocates, we know we must respond to the command in Leviticus 19:13, “Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.” Ask your Senators to continue to shed light on the issue with each passing Equal Pay Day by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act!

What does the PC(USA) say?

The 218^th General Assembly (2008) approved “God’s Work in Women’s Hands: Pay Equity and Just Compensation.”  “For the ‘promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world’ (Book of Order, G-1.0200)” the Assembly “recommitt[ed] itself to the support of institutional policies and legislation that would:

• Expand women’s civil protections to include equal pay for work of comparable worth;
• Provide prorated compensation and benefits for part-time employees;
• Heal work/family conflict through adequate financial support for those providing childcare and elder care, more flexible work hours, paid medical and family leave, family-supporting wages for all workers, and universal access to quality health care;
• Establish quality education as a basic human right;
• Uncover and eliminate racial bias in hiring and employment practices;
• Reduce the growing inequality in wages, benefits, and wealth.

“God’s Work in Women’s Hands” further directed the Washington Office and the UN Office to advocate for the ratification of the Equal Remuneration Convention and urged “synods, presbyteries, and individuals to advocate for local, state, and federal legislation that support these (above) policies.”

Women in the Workforce: Women's History Month

Saturday, March 8th, is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month, times to celebrate and educate about the ways women contribute to society, to the workforce, to their families, to our faith communities, and to all walks of life. 

The PC(USA) Office of Public Witness is joining with faith partners to remind Congress that women are a growing and vital part of the U.S. workforce. It is time for workers to be able to support themselves and their families. 

A Job Should Keep You Out of Poverty, Not Trap you In It.

Despite High Participation Rates in the Work Force, Women Workers Continue to Struggle for Equal Pay for Equal Work and a Living Wage

March is Women’s History Month. This is a time to celebrate how women are contributing to society – to our communities, our labor force, our cultural heritage, and our communities of faith. With today’s new jobs numbers, we are reminded that women are a growing part of our labor force, but are still held back by unfair levels compensation and a low minimum wage.

The trajectory of women’s participation in the labor force in the United States continues on an upward climb. In 2009 women made up 52% of the labor force, as compared to 1965 when 35% of workers were women. Women’s participation in certain industries and in educational attainment continues to grow as well. A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 36.4% of women workers attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2010, as opposed to only 11.2% in 1970. Additionally, federal and local governments employed more than three times the number of women in 2011 than they did in 1964.

In the unemployment figures from the month of February, we see women holding steady at a 5.9% unemployment rate or 4.2 million workers total. At this time, women who are looking for work are slightly more likely to find employment than men, with the average unemployment among men growing slightly from 6.2% in January to 6.4%.

And yet, women are still paid less for equal work, especially in more lucrative careers. In 2011, female lawyers, for example, earned only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a male lawyers, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Across fields, women make, on average, 82 cents to a man’s dollar. Women also comprise a considerable proportion of the low-wage-earning population (defined as less than $10.10 an hour), making up 77% of all low-wage earners, according to the National Women’s Law Center. As such, even though women who look for work are slightly more likely to hold a job than their male counterparts, they are less likely to be able to earn enough to support themselves, let alone a family. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s 2012 Women In the Labor Force: A Data Book indicates that women are more likely than men (7.5% as opposed to 6.7%) to be classified as “working poor,” (referring to workers who are making at or below minimum wage). Despite being fully employed, women still have a difficult time making ends meet.

This is because even though women have seen a growth in their overall employment, the jobs that they are able to attain are often insufficient for their needs. According to a report from the National Women's Law Center, 60% of women’s gains in employment from 2009 and 2012 were in the ten jobs that, on average, are most likely to pay less than $10.10 an hour. Only 20% of men’s gains in employment in the same time period were in these same ten jobs. Women of color are often hit the hardest, with 14.5% of Black women and 13.8%  of Latina women being classified as working poor in 2010, as opposed to 6.6% of White women. Finally, women who are single parents are more likely than their childless counterparts to live in poverty, at a rate of 29.7%, according to the Center for American Progress.

It is clear, then, that it is time to ensure that women who work do not have to live in poverty. We may do so by raising the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage is not only an economic issue, but a moral issue and a matter of supporting our families. Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institute estimates that raising the minimum wage would lift as many as one million families out of poverty, and increase earnings for 16.5 million people. As people of faith, we must pray for our legislators to do the right thing and send a message to the women of the United States that their work will be enough to not leave them and their children hungry. As Rachel asks in Genesis 31:14-15, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? For he has sold us, and has quite devoured also our money.” Our collective faiths call for equality and justice for all workers, including women. Let us stand together and call for the right to equal pay for equal work, and to raise the minimum wage.

You can find DHN’s Jobs Statement of Principles at http://domestichumanneeds.org/uploads/DHN-Jobs-Statement-of-Principles.pdf. 

 2012 ADVOCACY TRAINING EVENTS

March 23 – Compassion Peace and Justice

Training Day

“Presbyterians and Economic Justice”

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC

Come join the Office of Public Witness and all the ministries of Compassion Peace and Justice in a training day in Washington, DC. Participants will have a full day of practical church based training and investigate the role Christians must play in today’s changing society - particularly on issues of economic justice.  Topics of plenaries and workshops will include faith-based community organizing, practical tools for simple living, justice as discipleship making, social responsibility through investing, and many more!

 March 23-26 – Ecumenical Advocacy Days

“Is this the Fast I Seek? – Economy, Livelihood, and Our National Priorities”

Come to the 10th annual EAD, March 23-26, 2012, in Washington, DC where we will explore economy, livelihood and our national priorities through the lens of Isaiah 58. Join other Christians in seeking a global economy and a national budget that break the yokes of injustice, poverty, hunger and unemployment throughout the world — heeding Isaiah's call to become "repairers of the breach and restorers of streets to live in."

In a global economy based on scarcity, corporate greed, and individualism, we will seek God's alternative vision for global community: one that breaks the chains of injustice and creates the possibility of a sustainable livelihood with dignity for all, thus living into a reality of God's abundance.

Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Come to "Is This the Fast I Seek?," EAD's Tenth Anniversary Celebration, March 23-26, 2012 in Washington, DC and help shape our national priorities!

For more information go to http://www.advocacydays.org/

For more information call the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness at (202) 543-1126

Register Now for Both Events Below @

http://www.pcusa.org/events/18750/compassion-peace-and-justice-training-day/

Reverend Dr. Margaret Aymer Oget 

is the opening preacher at the

Ecumenical Advocacy Days 

Office of Public Witness' Leslie Woods in Yale's Reflections Magazine

Leslie Woods, Representative for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues at the Office of Public Witness, has recently been published in Yale Divinity School's Reflections Magazine.  

The article, titled American Dream, American Nightmare: Poverty Today, calls attention to the reality of poverty in our country today, its impact in women in particular, and our responsibility to address these issues.  "It is hard for the rest of us – me included – to conceive of the pain and anxiety a woman feels when she cannot afford to fill a prescription for a sick child."

To read the full article, click the link below.
http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/washington/pdfs/yds_reflections_lwoods_womenandpoverty.pdf