Repost: Mind the Gap - How One Employer Tackled Pay Equity

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal describes a successful policy implemented at McGill University to close the pay gap between male and female employees. After 13 years and $19 million US dollars, McGill provided equal wages to the 12,000 men and women whom they employ full-time (Murray, 8 July 2014). Their gender-equity program even provided backpay to employees who were considered underpaid according to a new Quebec law. The article explains how the program mathematically determined fair pay:

"The program's goal was to ensure that pay for female-dominated professions was keeping pace with male-dominated ones of equal importance. If administrative assistants were considered as valuable as groundskeepers, the thinking went, the women who jotted down phone messages and kept appointment calendars should be compensated as well as the men working the lawns" (Murray, 8 July 2014).

A similar pay gap between men and women persists in the United States, with some estimates as high as 19% (USDOL as cited in Murray). With federal legislation delayed, states and cities are working to develop their own solutions. In Boston, the Mayor and the Workforce Women's Council lead "100% Talent: The Boston Women's Compact" (www.cityofboston.gov/). Through this initiative, companies such as Suffolk Construction work independently to address equal pay issues.

To learn more about "100% Talent: The Boston Women's Compact," visit http://www.cityofboston.gov/.

To read the full article in The Wall Street Journal, visit http://m.us.wsj.com/.

Repost: Dayton signs law to give women a better workplace

Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota recently signed a law that requires state contractors to provide equal pay regardless of gender and expands benefits for parents working in the construction field. This is the first law of this kind in the country! Here's a clip from a recent Star Tribune article, describing the bill:

"The Women’s Economic Security Act, comprised of nine separate pieces of legislation, won legislative approval last week with bipartisan support. It forces about 1,000 state contractors to certify that they pay men and women equally for similar jobs, extends parental leave from six to 12 weeks and requires employers to make new accommodations for expectant and new mothers.

Dayton signed the bill surrounded by women at an event at the governor’s reception room. Women’s groups fought hard for the package.
'Nothing else like this is happening in the nation,' said Lee Roper-Batker, president of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. 'I have to tell you the nation is watching and cheering … right now'" (Roper, 11 May 2014).

Visit http://www.startribune.com/ to read the full article and visit http://wdoc.house.leg.state.mn.us to read a full description of this bill.

Repost: Newly launched program gives women a pathway to building trades

Great article in the May 16 2014 issue of New Hampshire Business Review describing Building Pathways New Hampshire (BPNH)'s efforts to help women access good jobs in the construction industry:

"Lisa Wiggin was looking for a career change. A 40-something nurse’s assistant, she wanted a job that was 'more hands-on' and gave her the satisfaction of working on a project and seeing something finished. 

At a visit to the unemployment office, Wiggin learned about Building Pathways New Hampshire, a program to provide pre-apprenticeship training to unemployed and underemployed women in hopes of building the female ranks in the construction industry. About 13 women were selected for the inaugural class, which began May 12 and runs for five weeks" (Lamontagne Hall, 16 May 2014).

Visit http://www.nhbr.com/ to read the full article.

Repost: A woman working a "man's job" - Mrs. Maombi, bricklayer

Mrs Maombi with her trowel.
© Photo: Thierry Kayandi/RNW
http://www.rnw.nl/africa

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, few people are surprised when a woman drops her apron for a job to help support her household. But many were surprised when Maombi Aristide chose to become a bricklayer.

Published on : 24 March 2014 - 2:11pm | By RNW Africa Desk (Photo: Thierry Kayandi/RNW)

By Thierry Kayandi, Goma

Aristide, 34, is a mother of six who realized that her family could no longer manage on her husband’s salary alone. Working for the Congolese National Police, he did not earn enough to pay for their children’s education.

DRC’s persisting socio-economic crisis has forced many Congolese women to seek an incoming-generating activity to help make ends meet at home. Maombi is certainly not a unique case. But her choice of job was. Bricklaying is still seen as an exclusively male trade in such a traditional and conservative society like DRC.

From vending to bricklaying

Before entering the construction industry, Maombi sold snacks on the streets of Goma. She made around three dollars a day, with one dollar being spent on the 15-kilometre trip to and from her home in Ndosho. This meagre income was barely enough to put food on the table.

But Maombi found inspiration for her future job in the Rwandan city of Gisenyi, near Goma, after crossing the border to look up an old neighbour. She found her working on a construction site where all the bricklayers were women. With no man to guide or supervise them, the women’s determination and independence made a deep impression on Maombi.

“These Rwandan women inspired me, especially their dynamism," she recalls. "That same evening when I returned home I told my husband about it and decided to change my activities.”

Maombi first worked for a few months as an intern assistant bricklayer for the renovation of the school she attended as a child. Once completed, the school began offering a new course encouraging women and girls to take up careers in construction. Maombi jumped at the opportunity and, through her teachers, she found her next job on a construction site. 

A better income, a better life

Maombi’s living conditions have improved considerably with the six to eight dollars she now earns per day. She has no reason to miss her hawking days. Thanks to her financial contribution, her family can now afford both education and healthcare.

Her husband is proud of her. Maombi now also has more time for her children since she works closer to home and no longer has to undertake long and costly bus commutes.

“My husband didn’t like it when I was selling on the streets because I would often come home late at night, when the younger children were already asleep,” she explains.

Her eldest daughter is now 14 and wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps by taking construction courses at the school. She is only waiting for her father’s approval. How could he possibly say no?

Visit http://www.rnw.nl/ to view this article's source.

Repost: Sister Carpenters Build Your Future (video)

Great stories from women carpenters in UBC!


Sister Carpenters Build Your Future from UBC Sisters in the Brotherhoo on Vimeo.

Repost: Apprenticeships lead to higher pay, but only for men

Young Canadian women who apprenticed had lower incomes than high school and college grads

Canadian men who complete an apprenticeship can expect to earn more than men who have only a high school education, more than men with trade qualifications and even more than many college graduates, according to a working paper on apprenticeships based on the 2006 census.

But the story is much different for women, with females who complete apprenticeships earning less than women with high school or college degrees or women in trades, according to the report Returns to Apprenticeship.

The study by University of Toronto researchers Morley Gunderson and Harry Krashinsky found male apprentices, who tend to be in the construction and mechanical trades, earned 24 per cent more than men who had a high school degree.

They brought home 15 per cent more money than those in the trades who were not apprenticed and two per cent more than college graduates. University graduates continued to outstrip those with apprenticeships, with incomes 40 per cent higher than high school graduates, though that number may be changing as the opportunities for university graduates diminish.

The results emphasize the value of apprenticeships, which many provinces are promoting as an alternative to college or university. With construction booming, businesses are reporting skilled trades shortages.

Unemployment among young people in Canada is now above 14 per cent.

Still, only a small percentage of the Canadian workforce has completed an apprenticeship — about 7.7 per cent of men and 1.6 per cent of women. The system of fostering apprentices is more common in Europe, but the study questioned why so few young men take on apprenticeships when the benefit appears to be so clear.

Canadian women were better off just completing high school, the study found. For women taking "an apprenticeship yields lower returns than simply completing high school and substantially lower returns than completing community college, likely reflecting the fact that female apprenticeships tend to be in low-wage jobs in industries like food and service," the study found.

The areas where women apprenticed were professions such as hairdressing and chef’s assistant. Those who completed apprenticeships earned 25 per cent less than women who completed college and 6.6 per cent less than high school graduates, the study found.

To read the full article, visit http://www.cbc.ca.

Repost: Miss Utah’s Question is Worth Answering

by PATRICIA SHIU on JUNE 20, 2013

Marissa Powell’s comments on the pay gap at the June 16 Miss USA competition have gotten a lot of attention in the news – but for all the wrong reasons.

Gossip sites and even respectable media sources have homed in on her grammatically shaky response, but let’s not duck the question; it is well worth answering again and again.

As judge NeNe Leakes acknowledged and as I’ve noted myself many times in this blog, there is a persistent wage gap in this country, despite the fact that women play an increasingly crucial economic role in America’s families. Leakes asked what the pay gap says about society, and I think it’s an important question. The fact that the pay gap has decreased over the past 50 years shows that our society is open to change – but the fact that it exists at all shows that change is slow and requires constant support.

Workers can take some responsibility by educating themselves about typical pay scales within their industries and the laws that apply to pay equality, particularly Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act, which was passed 50 years ago this month.

They should also know the federal agencies that are available to assist with education and enforcement, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which I lead, and its Women’s Bureau. We are constantly updating the department’s equal pay website to ensure that women have the tools and resources they need to level the playing field.

While Ms. Powell’s shaky response reflected the stress of responding to an unexpected question in a public forum, her clarification the next day got right to the heart of the issue: “This is not OK. It needs to be equal pay for equal work; and it’s hard enough already to earn a living, and it shouldn’t be harder just because you’re a woman.”

With her response Sunday night, Ms. Powell inadvertently drew more attention to this important question than she could have with a straight answer. That’s one small flub for a woman, one giant meme for womankind. And it’s a conversation we can all benefit from. After all, the pay gap costs individual women thousands of dollars in lost pay every year – and hundreds of thousands across their working lifetimes.

Closing the pay gap has deeply personal repercussions for women around the nation, but it has even greater resonance for society at large. Equality has long been one of cornerstones of our national culture, and its benefits are widespread.

As the president said on the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, closing the pay gap is “part of a broader agenda to create good jobs and to strengthen middle-class security, to keep rebuilding an economy that works for everybody, that gives every American the chance to get ahead, no matter who you are or what you look like, or what your last name is and who you love.”

Patricia Shiu is the director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

View the original article at http://social.dol.gov/blog.