As if we needed any more evidence that women making less than men at work is straight-up unfair—and not, as some would have you think, because of motherhood or part-time work, or career choice—an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times argues that the recent landmark judgment against Novartis proves that we need legislation protecting women at work more than ever before:
Some of the most powerful evidence put to the jury concerned gender disparities in pay. Female sales representatives at Novartis were paid $105 less per month, on average, than men with the same amounts of experience and tenure. Unfortunately, such shortchanging is hardly unique. Nationally, women still make, on average, 78 cents for every dollar earned by men performing substantially the same work.
In January 2009, the House approved the Paycheck Fairness Act, a measure that would help close that yawning pay gap by, among other things, making stronger remedies available under the existing Equal Pay Act, protecting employees from retaliation, and ensuring that courts require employers to show that wage disparities are job-related, not sex-based, and consistent with business needs.
It is time for the Senate to stop dawdling and approve this needed tweaking of the rules.
We’re glad that the Times is standing up on this issue. But here’s what’s disappointing:
- The piece ran on Memorial Day, a Monday, which means it was probably read by fewer people than any other day of the week.
- The legislation has been languishing in Congress for a year and a half already? Yes, yes, we know that there’s been some, um, important stuff to take care of down in D.C., but we’d think an act like this—“fairness” is in the title for chrissakes!—would be sort of a no-brainer. Who takes issue with protecting employees from retaliation (that’s the same as protecting whistleblowers, no?) or making companies prove that unequal wages aren’t based on sexism? Color us naive, but we just don’t get it.
- Also: it’s 2010. Remind us why this didn’t pass 40 years ago?
Any D.C. insiders reading? Help a sister out! What is the deal?
A sharply divided federal appeals court exposed Wal-Mart to billions in legal damages when it ruled on Monday that a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination can go to trial.
In its 6-5 ruling, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said the world’s largest private employer will have to face charges that it pays women less than men for the same jobs and that female employees receive fewer promotions and have to wait longer for those promotions than male counterparts.
Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote a blistering dissent, joined by four of her colleagues. “No court has ever certified a class like this one, until now. And with good reason,” Ikuta wrote. “In this case, six women who have worked in 13 of Wal-Mart’s 3,400 stores seek to represent every woman who has worked in those stores over the course of the last decade — a class estimated in 2001 to include more than 1.5 million women.”
Thanks to Slark Pope for bringing this to our attention. UPDATE: Read the fresh ABC story on the case here.
Our own Ms. Bennett was on NPR’s On Point program today discussing our story about the pay gap with the (in)famous Caitlin Flanagan. Listen to their lively conversation here.
And while you’re there, take a minute to look through the comments. It seems to us that the pay gap is one of the most straightforward and least controversial parts of this issue. But damn do people get riled up. Let us know what you think here!
Great piece from Harvard Business Review blogs, brought to our attention by a reader (thank you!), about how we must shift the conversation about work and gender from the problem with the wage gap to solutions for corporations. Some highlights:
- Women represent one of the world’s biggest and most under-reported opportunities—a growth market twice as big as India and China combined.
- The business world has been so focused on stories like the rise of China that it has not been invited to see that, much closer to home, business could be reaping the benefits of the rise of women.
- We must stop asking “What’s wrong with women that they’re not making it to the top?” and start asking “What’s wrong with companies if they can’t retain and promote the majority of educated Americans?” (That’s us, womyn!)
(Oh, and maybe we shouldn’t be high-fiving yet. But we kinda liked this picture.)
The good news is that in Europe, the executive European Commission has laid out plans to address the pay gap as part of its Europe 2020 strategy, a 10-year plan to boost economic growth and create jobs. Women in EU earn, on average, 82 percent what men do.
