Equal Pay Day, A Few Days Later
Dear friends of women in science,
We passed Equal Pay Day last week when I was inundated with work and with health issues, but it's still worth remembering and un-celebrating. I really liked the two graphic displays AWIS made for the occasion. One showed we'll acheive parity in 2056 moving at the rate we've achieved now. The other one said, "Women in STEM: like men in STEM, only cheaper." Women in STEM careers overall receive 14% lower pay for the same jobs as men. Bad, but better than women overall, for whom the discrepancy is 21% lower. There's no reason for the difference in pay except the unfortunate tradition of discrimination many of us grew up with.
The Congress made a good step in addressing this discrepancy by passing the Lilly Ledbetter act, signed by President Obama early in his first term. But there are loopholes. It's still legal for employers to punish their employees for sharing salary information, for example. Now we need Congress to address those and pass the Fair Pay Act introduced in the 112th Congress and re-introduced in the 113th Congress by Rep Tom Harkin and Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton. If you agree women should be paid equal wages for equal work, then find out more about the act and ask you Representative to support it.
cheers,
Laura Hoopes
I have been in this business for many years, and I will assure you that since I started, I have seen many examples (including my own experience) where women and men with the same employer do not receive equal pay. Sometimes this is due to women being weaker negotiators than men (often due to the two-body problem; many women are unable to use the bluff of "I'll leave if you don't give me this!" because of family responsibilities). Sometimes its due to other things (one woman I know was told, "your husband has a great job, you don't need the money." ) But none of these reasons make it right.
Hi Alan,
I see your point regarding industry. It's certainly true that we're rewarded based on performance and those that have projects that move forward obviously get the lion's share of the bonus/raises. Those changes of course accumulate, so the disparities you're pointing to can arise.
This in part reflects the choices that women make to "Lean In" as Sheryl Sandberg calls it and commit more time and effort to high risk/reward project leadership and overall commitment to the job. When they don't do that, they simply don't make as much in the same role and are left behind the men as they rise.
However, there is also the institutional component which has been clearly shown to affect the opportunities that women vs. men are presented with. And even when women get those exceptional ratings, they are still given less compensation compared to men in the same role.
Women can work on themselves if that fits with their values. But we'd all like have the system change alongside that, so that when we do Lean In, we get the same benefits.
Cheers,
Helen
Alan
Where have you been? Studies have shown that, after accounting for all known variables other than gender, women with identical degrees and identical jobs earn less than men one year out of school! It gets worse with time.
Equal pay for equal skills and work.
Marian
I'll throw in my 2 cents on this one.
Equal pay for the same work, at the same company/institution should be the case every time.
If you teach at an institution, with an endowment that is massively huge, your pay obviously will be better than if you are at a State school where the budget just got cut for the 7th time.
If you are working for a company, that finally cracks the issue of better batteries for high tech devices; your bonus should be equal to that of your peers. At the same time all the men and women working for all the companies that didn't crack the problem are going to have pay checks that look paltry compared to yours. Or within a company, if your division is generating a couple of dozen patents a year, and another hasn't seen the patent office in a dozen years, I would expect that the paychecks between the 2 divisions not to be equal.
Wage statistics, often give an impression of disparity, when there is little or none at the most basic level, the same employer.
Hi Sara,
Yes, I wish they were motivated by sheer love of stretching their minds on the fascinating puzzles of science, but I think you're right. A lot more attention focuses on pay today.
cheers,
Laura
Laura--I think this issue is really important. I know you posted that in your category of biology, the women make more! But for lots of us, that's not nearly true, so we still need to push for fairness.
I also think that we can make a good story out of STEM pay being higher and FAIRER for women overall, a pitch I haven't heard before. Today's students are more motivated by money than ever we were.
Sara
