Dear Neighbor, Whatever Happened to Equal Pay?
Today is Equal Pay Day, a date that symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. The Wage Equity Now (WEN) coalition held a briefing about two new bills that continue to address the pay gap. (Here are the Telegram and Gazette's and MassLive's report on the briefing.)
Keep reading to learn about our 2016 bill, progress since then, remaining problems, the new bills announced at the briefing, other solutions, and Fred Small's 59 Cents song.
This newsletter about pay equity is the first of several newsletters about laws we passed, what difference they made, and what work needs to be done now.
The Equal Pay Act  In 1989, the women school cafeteria workers of Everett were being paid half as much as male janitors. They brought a lawsuit, Jancey vs. School Committee of Everett, saying that they did equally hard, skilled, and responsible work as the janitors, and should be paid equally. They lost the legal battle because there was no definition of "equal work." But when then-Representative Alice Wolf and I learned about the case, we filed a bill to define comparable work. (In the photo, Alice and me at the bill signing with Dorothy Simonelli, one of the leaders of the Everett cafeteria workers.)
Working with a broad coalition, in 2016 we finally passed the Equal Pay Act. It not only defined comparable work. It also allowed employees to discuss their pay with each other. We were the first state to ban employers from using someone’s salary history during hiring. Salary history can lock women and people of color into lower salaries for their whole careers. They start out with lower pay, and never catch up. Since then, 18 other states have adopted the ban on salary history.
Most companies didn't wait for a lawsuit. As we hoped, they performed self-assessments to find out if they were paying equally for comparable work. Senate President Karen Spilka, who had raised the issue of salary history, launched a study of Senate staffers' pay, and has set up a structure designed to define how much each job pays, as well as instituting across-the-board pay increases.
There was at least one successful lawsuit: the Boston Symphony's principal flutist settled her case through mediation, having argued that she was making only 75% of the pay of the principal oboist.
The Equal Pay Act Worked!
In 2020, Newsweek reported on a study by economists at BU School of Law. The study found that "Banning employers from using salary history against prospective employees substantially closes wage gaps." This twitter thread summarizes the findings.
Forbes reported that "The study found a 5% increase in pay for all job changers, an 8% increase for women and a 13% increase for Black workers in areas that had enacted a salary history ban."
59 cents to 85.7 cents (?)
 In 1981, Fred Small wrote this excellent song about the pay gap. Then women earned "59 cents for every man's dollar."
By 2016, when we passed the Equal Pay Act, Massachusetts women were making 79 cents, according to the Census Bureau.
 There are different ways to measure pay gaps. The most common is comparing the pay for full-time year-round work. The National Women's Law Center reports that in 2021, women's pay in Massachusetts was 85.7% of men's. That's comparing women of all races and ethnicities to all men of all ethnicities. Compared to white, non-Hispanic men, Black women made 58.1%; Latinas made 53.3%; and white, non-Hispanic women made 81.1%. (Click on the report to see more details, state by state.) Pay gaps are greater if you consider all workers, including part-time and part-year.
 The most comprehensive analysis I've found is by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). it examines many possible causes, like schedules, gendered occupations, union membership, education, motherhood, negotiation, location, and discrimination. It's discouraging that closing of the pay gap is partly due to men's wages dropping.
We need more! Wage Equity Now Bills  At yesterday's briefing, Wage Equity Now coalition (members shown at right) discussed two bills to continue reducing pay gaps. The Telegram and Gazette and MassLive have good reports about the event and the bills.
The 2016 law banned asking for salary history. We learned that human resources departments no longer asked for salary histories. Instead, they asked applicants what their salary expectations were. Women and people of color tend to undervalue themselves; they ask for and receive less.
 So, with the support of the WEN coalition, I filed a bill with my Labor and Workforce Committee co-chair Rep. Josh Cutler and Rep. Brandy Fluker-Oakley to require employers to post pay ranges when they advertise jobs. Ten other states have adopted similar bills. (Bills on the state website load very slowly.)
Senators Paul Feeney and Liz Miranda, with Reps. Christine Barber and Dave Rogers filed a bill to require companies and municipalities to share their federally required EEOC data to the Secretary of State. The data contains demographic workforce data — including by race or ethnicity, gender and job category. It would then be combined to provide aggregate reporting of wage gaps within business sectors.
The budget can help close pay gaps!
The problem the Everett cafeteria workers was that they were paid half as much for work that was not the same, but required equal difficulty, skill, and responsibility. That inequality is still legal - if the groups of women and men work for different employers. EPI reports that 43% of workers are in highly gendered occupations, in which more than 75% of workers are of a single gender. "Occupation and industry (taken together) account for about half of the overall gender wage gap."
 Last March, The Boston Foundation (TBF) released a report on "The Stubborn Persistence of the Gender Pay Gap in Massachusetts." They found that "One driver of the pay gap is that society has undervalued work traditionally done by women."
Another report by EPI says that "On average, child care workers in the U.S. are paid $13.51/hour and home health care workers are paid $13.81/hour—roughly half what the average U.S. worker is paid ($27.31)."
Increasing the minimum wage helps to equalize pay for lower income people.
The state contracts with many programs that hire caregivers for children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The state can and should improve their pay by raising the rates they pay contractors and requiring that the money go to workers.
EPI concludes that "A minimum standard for care workers is a wage that would allow them to support a young child on just their own wages in the least expensive metro area. We calculate this minimum living wage to be at least $21.11 per hour." (This seems like a low estimate, compared to other reports, for example this.) Read more about the crisis in caregiving in my December newsletter.
Correction
In my last newsletter, I stated that in 1990 "Winchester, still a Republican town" was added to this Senate district. I meant that Winchester voters still voted Republican that year; Winchester has changed a lot. Maybe someone would like to write the story of how Winchester changed!
Stay well and stay in touch,
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