ELY - For 2021, Equal Pay Day for women is Wednesday, March 24. This day is marked nationally to symbolize how far into the year women need to work to make what men did in the previous year.
The most recent statistics place women’s pay at 82 cents for every dollar a man earns.
The Ely Branch of the American Association of University Women has been actively working to promote pay equity since the early 2000s, with a primary focus on educating both high school and Vermilion Community College students on the issue.
In 2017, AAUW added presentations to the public and an “Unhappy Hour” to help educate local residents and business owners on wage gap issues.
“When we held our first Unhappy Hour,” said Linda Sutton, AAUW public policy committee chair, “the Eighth Congressional District ranked last in the state for pay equity with a 27-cent difference between males and females. Last year the Eighth District moved to sixth in state rankings and this year, while the ranking is unchanged, the gap has narrowed to 22 cents.”
In 2018, the Ely Rotary Club joined forces with AAUW to jointly encourage local businesses to sign an affirmation of equal pay for their employees. The goal was to become the first city in the state to affirm support of all community businesses for equal pay.
“In 2019 we marked 100 businesses when Mayor Chuck Novak signed the affirmation following a vote by the Ely City Council,“ Sutton said. “This year, another major Ely business joined with the signature of Ely Bloomenson Community Hospital.”
At present, over 130 local businesses have signed the affirmation. That promotion will wrap up in April of this year with the final publication and celebration of businesses that have expressed their support of equal pay for equal work.
Businesses who would like to finalize their commitment prior to the April 10 deadline may contact Sutton at ldsutton2001@aol.com for information.
“There has been significant progress in the years since we began our equal pay activities,” Sutton said. “We’re particularly excited by the number of businesses who have expressed their commitment to equal pay, and by the improvement in the ranking of the Iron Range when it comes to pay equity. However, despite civil rights laws and advancements in women’s economic status, workplace discrimination still persists.”
The pay gap becomes even greater when racial equity is considered, with Black women, as an example, making just 62 cents on the dollar. Native American women make only 57 cents for every dollar a man makes.
Additionally, the average American woman has a net worth less than half of the net worth of a man. The long-term consequences of the pay gap mean there is less money to put into retirement, less paid into Social Security, and there are ultimately more senior women living in poverty. The average full-time female worker is paid approximately $434,000 less than a man over a 40-year full-time career.
“The issues of pay inequity have become especially acute over the last year because of the disproportionate way the pandemic has affected female workers,” she said. “For example, two-thirds of individuals filing for unemployment in Minnesota are women, up from one-third pre-pandemic.”
The Equal Pay Act was signed into law by John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963. The law mandates that men and women receive equal pay for “substantially equal” work at the same establishment. A year later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that added protections against discrimination based on an individual’s national origin, religion, race or sex.