Pay Equity

equalpaybreakdown

The next Pay Equity Day is April 4, 2017.

Each year the CWCS commemorates Pay Equity Day. The date symbolizes how far a woman must work into the next year to earn as much as a man earned. For women of color, however, Pay Equity Day comes much farther into the year (July for African-American women & November for Hispanic women) because the wage gap is much worse when factoring in both race and gender.

Since the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, the wage gap has been closing at a very slow rate. In 2013, Connecticut full-time working women earned 78% of what their male counterparts earned. This wage inequity amounts to a yearly wage gap of $13,229 between full-time working men and women in the state.

The wage gap for women of color is dramatically worse. According to research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Black women make 60.3%, Hispanic women make 46.6% and Native American women make 61.2% of what their White male counterparts make in Connecticut.

Ensuring equal pay for equal work is critical to ensuring the long-term economic success of women and their families.

Pay equity buttons are available by calling (860) 240-0016.

Pay Equity Tool Kit

There are many ways you can take action to help move us towards pay equity, not just on Pay Equity Day but throughout the year as well.

  • Calculate your wage gap using this tool from Women Are Getting Even (WAGE).
  • Organize a lunch time meeting at your workplace and invite women to attend so they can stay informed about pay equity issues.
  • Hold an equal pay day bake sale. Have men pay 100% of the cost while charging women only 78% of the price of the baked goods.
  • Consider starting a WAGE club. A Wage Club is a group of women who come together for personal support and who help each other take action to help close the wage gap.
  • If you’re an employer, considering conducting a pay equity self-audit. Helpful information about how to do this can be found here.
  • Encourage your local city/town council to proclaim “Pay Equity Day” by passing a local resolution.
  • Send letters to the editor of your local paper. A few quick tips: pick only one or two papers to send your letter and make sure your letter is brief – most papers have a word limit on what they will print (usually around 200 words).