ST. PAUL, MN – April 9 was the anniversary of the Pay Equity Act in Minnesota and was also Equal Pay Day across the nation. Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Living Wage Jobs will be hearing testimony from policy experts on gender, income and work issues. The Committee will be looking back on 30 years of pay equity in Minnesota and will look for solutions to remaining gender-based income inequality.
WHO: Kim Borton, Women's Foundation of Minnesota
Debra Fitzpatrick, Center on Women and Public Policy
Catherine Hill, American Association of University Women
WHAT: Hearing on gender, income and work issues as they relate to living wages and pay
equity in Minnesota
WHEN: Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: State Office Building, Room 400N
Pay Equity in Minnesota:
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19 years after passage of the Federal Equal Pay Act, The Minnesota Task Force of the Council on the Economic Status of Women commissioned a study on pay equity and found there was a 20% gap between state male and female workers pay. The Legislature responded with the State Employees Pay Equity Act of 1982 requiring equal pay for work of equal value. That law has now been in place for 30 years.
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April 9 was also Equal Pay Day across the nation. This date symbolizes how far into 2013women must work to earn what men earned in 2012.
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In Minnesota, women earn 80 cents for each dollar earned by men. Nationally, women earn 77cents for each dollar earned by men.
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Women's median pay was less than men's in each of the 20 industries and 25 occupation groups surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007. Men working in female-dominated occupations tend to earn more than women working in those same occupations.
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If equal pay for women were instituted immediately, it would result in an annual $319 billion gain nationally for US women and their families (in 2008 dollars). Over her working life, a typical woman could expect to gain a total of $210,000 in additional income.
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One year after graduating college, women are paid only 80 percent of their male counterparts' wages, and during the next 10 years, women's wages fall to only 69 percent of men's earnings ten years after college.
Rep. Winkler can be reached by phone at (651) 296-7026 or by email at rep.ryan.winkler@house.mn. Follow the Select Committee on Twitter @livingwagejobmn.
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