Indiana AFL-CIO 2000 Legislative Positions

Equal Pay in Indiana

Other formats:
PDF   MS Word

Without Equal Pay, Working Families lose $5.6 Billion Each Year

Equal pay is a bread-and butter issue for working families.  More than two-thirds of all mothers in the United States work for pay.  Two-earner families are today's norm among married couples, and a growing number of single women provide most or all of their families' support.  Altogether, almost two-thirds of all working women and slightly more than half of married women responding to the AFL-CIO's 1997 Ask a Working Woman survey said they provide half or more of their families' incomes.

94% of working women in the Ask a Working Woman survey  - almost every one - described equal pay as "very important," that two of every five cited pay as the "biggest" problem women face at work; and that one-third of all women and half of African American women said that, despite its importance, they do not have equal pay in their jobs.

In Indiana, as across the nation, working women earn less than working men.  The price tag for pay inequity is huge.  According to an analysis of government wage data, paying women less than comparable men - those of the same age, with the same education, who work the same number of hours - costs working women's families in the state a staggering $5.6 billion.

Pay Inequality Translates into Large Wage Gaps for Women and People of Color

One of the most common measures of earnings inequality is the "wage gap", a figure reflecting wage differences between groups of workers. The "gender wage gap" used in this study is the difference in weekly wages for women and men working full-time, while the "minority wage gap" reflects differences between minority and non-minority full-time workers.

• Across the nation, women earn 74 cents for every dollar earned by men.  A typical woman in Indiana earns 66 cents for every man's dollar, or $201 less per week.  The gender wage gap is somewhat larger for women of color.  They earn $220 less than men overall, or 63 cents for every man's dollar.  Nationally, women of color earn 64 cents for every dollar that men overall earn.
• Minority wage gaps differ between the state and the nation.  Indiana's women of color earn $26 less weekly than white women, or 93 cents for every dollar; women of color nationally earn 80 cents for every dollar that white women earn.  Men of color in the state earn $120 less weekly than white men, or 80 cents for every dollar that white men earn.  Nationally, the ratio for men of color is 66 cents for every dollar white men earn.

Raising Women's Wages Would Increase Family Income and Cut Poverty

Gender inequality in the workplace reduces women's wages and hurts their families.  Paying Indiana women as much as comparable men would dramatically raise family incomes and reduce poverty rates:

• Single mothers' earnings would rise an average of $5,008 annually, cutting poverty rates for their families by more than one-third, from 21.0 percent to 12.7 percent.
   
• Single women with no children would earn an additional $5,264 annually, which would virtually eliminate poverty among single women.
   
• Married women's earnings would rise an additional $4,949 reducing their families poverty rate from 1.9 percent to 1.1 percent.
   

Pay Equity Would Boost Pay for Women and Men in Predominately Female Jobs in Indiana

Women and men suffer from a pervasive form of wage discrimination in female-dominated jobs.  Secretaries, cashiers, LPN's, child care providers and other jobs with 70 percent or more workers  are paid less than similar workers in jobs not dominated by women.  Correcting these inequities by paying women and men in predominately female jobs the same as similar workers in nonfemale-dominated jobs would significantly boost their earnings.

• Annual earnings for women in these jobs would rise 19.6 percent, for an average of $3,116.
   
• Yearly raises for the 5.0 percent of men in female-dominated jobs would average $6,705.

Union Representation Boosts Pay and Makes It More Equal

Union representation brings wage settings into the open and helps ensure that employers rely on objective factors - skill, effort and responsibility - to set pay rates.  Unions markedly boost wages for all represented workers, especially for those most likely to encounter discrimination in pay or other employment terms.  Unionized workers in Indiana show the powerful and positive effect of union representation on wages:

• Among full-time workers, women represented by unions earn an average of $176, or 47.3 percent, more per week than women with nonunion jobs.  The gain for men with union jobs averages $113, or 20.2 percent, more per week.
   
• Among full-time workers, men of color with union jobs earn an average of $233 more per week (53.0 percent) than men of color with nonunion jobs.
   
• The gender wage gap for workers with union jobs is one-third less than that of nonunion workers, $125 versus $188.
   
• The minority wage gap for men with union jobs is eliminated.  Minority men with nonunion jobs earn an average of $137 less per week than white men with nonunion jobs.

In the 35 years since the equal employment laws passed, women and people of color have made significant strides into the mainstream of the American workplace.  But lingering unequal pay robs women and their families of economic security, doubling poverty rates for today's workers and threatening reduced retirement income and greater poverty tomorrow.

Solutions

There are three clear routes to ensuring that women receive equal pay: 

• vigorous enforcement of current equal pay laws
• passage of stronger and better equal pay laws
• greater protections for workers' right to organize together into unions