April is the month every year when the paychecks of women working full-time, year-round catch up with what men earned by the previous December 31. This year Equal Pay Day falls on April 17. There are a number of causes for the pay gap, including job segregation (so-called “men’s jobs” pay more than “women’s jobs”) [...]
It might seem a bad time to repeal equal pay laws when women who graduate college earn $1.2 million less during their lifetimes than their male peers. It might also seem ill-conceived to replace effective sex education with abstinence-only programs while making abortion restrictions tighter. But Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has never been a master [...]
“Women who want to earn more on Wall Street than their male colleagues have one reliable option. They can set up a shoe-shine stand in Lower Manhattan.” So concluded Bloomberg reporter Frank Bass after crunching Census data on the gender wage gap in various professions. His findings: Out of 265 major occupations, service work such [...]
Twenty students at the University of Virginia are starving, but not only because they haven’t eaten in 10 days. They’re starved for justice from an administration they say has failed to provide a living wage for its employees, and so they began a hunger strike on February 18. Their demands: Pay UVA workers more–at least [...]
Next time you plunk down some change on the table before leaving a restaurant, think about what might be behind that service with a smile. A new study warns that when Americans eat out, they feed into an industry fueled by exploitation and rampant discrimination against women. The report, published by the labor advocacy group [...]
“Wal-Mart Launches Global Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative; Effort Includes Goal to Source $20 Billion from Women‑Owned Businesses in the U.S.” read the headline on Wal-Mart’s press release announcing a new “gender washing” initiative. Well, ok, it didn’t say “gender washing.” I made up the term to convey the same meaning as “green washing” when it’s [...]
A divorced janitor–a 27-year employee and the mother of a 17-year old son with the mental capacity of an 18-month old–fails to report for mandatory overtime one Saturday when her son’s caregiver could not work because of a sick child. The janitor calls twice and leaves a message for her manager. She gets fired. As [...]
Today is Women’s Equality Day. At the center of my mind today is: What the heck do I tell my daughter? How do I tell my daughter about the fact that despite many gains made for women’s (and mothers’) equality, women still don’t earn equal pay for equal work? Women now make, on average, only [...]
At a time when work, workers and the workplace are “job one” for the struggling U.S. economy, it’s discouraging to find out that the nation just can’t get serious about taking half of its workforce seriously. The female half. I’m referring to Wednesday’s court decision in which U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska dismissed a class-action discrimination [...]
Researchers at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce have compiled a new report on how education affects people’s earnings, based on 2007-2009 American Community Survey data. Not surprisingly, higher education significantly increases lifetime earnings of U.S. workers: But education doesn’t pay off equally for all groups. Women make less at every level of [...]
