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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

National Equal Pay Day

Yesterday was National Equal Pay Day. Don't know what that is? It's the day that represents how far women have to work into the next year "to earn as much as men earned by December 31 of the previous year." (Press release). One of my friends, Dr. Karen Fine, organized a community event called the Taste of Disparity that brought more than twenty businesses and several organizations together at the Worcester Public Library. My sons and I had the privilege of attending.

My older son (OS) enjoyed the free cookies that had a "bite" taken out of them to represent the 23% difference in pay. He was also excited that I let him wear his "hair" a.k.a. the free ratty dish towel we found in our house when we moved into it. He had a fantastic time eating cookies and showing off his hair. I tried to explain the event to him, but he just looked at me blankly. Why would there be a difference in the way men and women are paid? Ahhh...the wisdom of youth. My younger son (YS) enjoyed doing his army crawl on the floor and getting lots of attention.

So what did I enjoy? Well, I wish I could say I enjoyed learning about the wage difference. However, enjoy would definitely be the wrong word. I was glad I attended the event, but saddened by the wage gap facts I learned. The bottom line is that women on average earn 77 cents for each dollar that men earn.

People come up with many excuses, beyond pure sexism, for the disparity. They claim that women traditionally participate in professions that are lower paid. Unfortunately, that does not explain why the disparity exists between men and women doing the same job. Others talk about how women are more likely to take time off or work part-time to raise families. They thus end up "behind" men in their careers, and therefore do not get the same raises and promotions. Recent studies have compensated for this by looking at the starting salaries of women and men right out of college. Despite the fact that new college grads of either gender tend to lack significant experience and that regardless of familial status, they are both starting in the workforce at the same time, a disparity still exists. (Source.)

State Senator Edward Augustus, City Council Members Mike Perotto, Kate Toomey, Gary Rosen, and Dennis Irish and School Committee Members John Monfredo and Joe O'Brien attended the event. Unfortunately the boys and I were delayed by several meltdowns and rogue chicken nuggets at home (not to mention a tumble that a pair of shoes took down the landing during one of the above mentioned meltdowns) so we got there pretty late and missed seeing them.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 11:46 PM   2 comments
2 Comments:

  • At 4/26/2007 6:42 AM, Blogger super des said…

    I read something about the wage difference the other day. They start out less far apart, but as time goes on, women with more experience are making far less than men - the gap widens with time. Arg.

     

  • At 4/30/2007 8:14 AM, Blogger Nancy said…

    It is disheartening when you hear it, but I believe that as women connect and band together more and more around the issues they are passionate about we'll see some real change. Maybe not in time to see the benefits ourselves, but maybe our daughters and nieces will.

    I wish I had known about the event myself. (Although I was probably to busy working and earning 23 cents less than my colleagues that day.) I've got to get up to date on my library events!

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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