Gender Pay Gap Focus of De Anza College Forum

It may be hard for some to swallow the notion that modern-day women still make 77 cents to every dollar a man earns, but the wide-mouthed monetary gap was the focus of an equal pay for equal work event at De Anza College recently.

“The pay gap was identified in 1963 and we’ve only got one penny of change,” said Linda Li, EEOC program analyst.

In an attempt to correct this, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission combined with De Anza College’s Women’s History Events to host Pay Me What I'm Worth, a free workshop on April 24 to educate De Anza students and the community on what they can do to correct the gap during job interviews and after employment.

In occupations traditionally considered “women’s roles,” such as administration, sales and personal care, seeing systemic discrepancies in pay against the national average women aren’t just being paid less, they are paying each other less as well.

“The numbers are boggling,” Li said. “It still surprises people who are in the equal pay division.”

The boggling numbers include 80 percent of occupations with a pay discrepancy, and a Grand Canyon-like pay gap is evident in the legal field men where a woman earns an average of $70,000 annually less than a man. Over the course of her lifetime that can mean upwards of $370,000 in lost wages.

The workshop wasn’t just to create awareness of the gap but to correct it, one person at a time.

“If you don’t know your rights what are you supposed to do?” Li said, adding that many of the company policies meant to obscure pay rates are actually illegal, such as policies prohibiting the discussion of pay with co-workers.

According to both federal and state law, employees are fully allowed to discuss their pay with other employees. If a company prohibits employees from discussing pay or terminates an employee for discussing pay, report that company to the national relations labor board (www.nlrb.gov) or the California labor commission (www.dir.ca.gov/dlse), she said.

Employers are also required, by both federal and state laws, to provide equal pay for a substantially equal job. Substantially equal refers to an occupation requiring similar, experience, education, workload and hours.

Aside from providing education to combat unfair and illegal business practices, the workshop also provided a mock interview to highlight where women have traditionally stumbled, resulting in lower wages after employment. The chief cause was a failure to negotiate a higher wage, and when asking, failing to provide what they are worth in a way their employer can understand.

“My son always knows what he’s bringing to the company and says it,” said Jenny Erwin, U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau regional administrator.

“Women, for whatever reason, have had a harder time at this.”

The theme is supported by studies conducted by Princeton University during which women and men were asked to negotiate a higher pay for themselves, and for others. Women were able to secure a higher wage for others, regardless of gender, but were unable to secure a higher wage for themselves.

To correct this, the EEOC recommends women not settle for a lower wage even in the current market and to do research on what the average wage for the position is, then ask for it. If wages are fixed; negotiate benefits, vacation days or frequent performance reviews with the prospect of a raise.

“If you don’t care about your review,” Li said, “no one else will.”

While the workshop focused on empowering women during the interview, employers who attended past workshops have suggested instead lowering the wage range for a position, narrowing the discrepancy possibility on their end.

As the third workshop held by the EEOC this year, De Anza was chosen to reach out to a younger generation, especially students.

“Last year we drew around 80 folks to a Fair Pay Day event at San Jose State University,” Li said.

“However only about five or fewer folks were students, the rest were community advocates, general public, and HR and employer representatives.”

Li said the turn out this year—still a mix of students and community members—was great and believes they helped audience members better prepare for upcoming job search and negotiations.

More information on negotiation techniques, how to report an employer for violations and where to research a position’s average pay can be found on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, www.dol.gov/equalpay and athttp://owp.sccgov.org