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January 24, 2005

Mind the gap | Maine's working women are still left behind on payday

By Taylor Smith
For the roughly 332,000 women in Maine's workforce, stellar on-the-job performance doesn't always translate into a fatter paycheck. Nor do late nights in the office or years of professional training. According to Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women's Policy Center, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for women in the workforce is the fact that they're women. "The primary predictor of your wages is your gender," she says. "Whether because of overt discrimination, your work history or other factors, they all work together to deny women and families very important income."

In the hope of educating Maine's working women ˆ— as well as the state's corporate leaders ˆ— about the issue of wage discrimination, the Hallowell-based Maine Women's Policy Center is preparing the release of "A Woman's Guide to Pay Equity." A working draft of the guide Standiford provided to Mainebiz lays out a variety of reasons the wage gap exists, as well as ways for employees to take advantage of state laws that prohibit wage discrimination in the workplace. Standiford's guide also discusses the wage gap's effect on women and families in Maine as well as the ripple effect wage discrimination can have on the state's workforce.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2003 women nationwide earned 79.5% of what men earned, with women pulling in a median income of $552 a week, compared to $695 for men. In Maine that year, the median income for women equaled 76.9% of the median income for men. National numbers have improved since 1979 (the first year comparable earnings data were released by the DOL), when women were paid 63 cents for every dollar earned by men. During the same period, Maine's numbers have made significant improvements, but have hovered between 76.2% and 83.3% since 1997, according to the Bureau of Labor Education at the University of Maine.

Experts explain the wage gap in various ways, ranging from overt discrimination to the fact that women are more likely than men to have gaps in their résumé due to time spent on maternity leave or caring for a sick parent; the gaps can cause women to lose traction on the corporate ladder. "It's self perpetuating," says Standiford, who adds that couples often decide who stays home based on each person's wages. "Once the wage gap is eliminated, women will have more choices."

Standiford also notes that "pink collar" jobs ˆ— administrative positions or jobs in the retail and service sectors, which are largely filled by women ˆ— pay less than comparable jobs in industries typically dominated by men. She cites a 2000 study by Nance Goldstein, an associate professor of economics at the University of Southern Maine, which found that a number of comparable jobs routinely paid women less than men for roughly the same amount of skill, effort and responsibility. Goldstein found that in 1998 the median hourly wage for bank tellers, a position primarily held by women, was $7.85. That compares to an hourly wage of $11.04 for shipping clerks, a position primarily held by men. The shortfall in annual income for the bank teller equaled more than $6,600, an amount Standiford says could be the difference between poverty and security for many women.

Adam Fisher, assistant to the commissioner at the Maine Department of Labor, agrees that wage inequity has serious consequences for women, especially in Maine, where 10% of households are headed by single women. He notes that women are 40% more likely to be poor than men in Maine, where the poverty rate in 2002 was 12.3% for women and 8.7% for men.

While the wage gap has narrowed considerably during the past two-and-a-half decades, Standiford says the process still isn't happening quickly enough. If women's wages continue increasing at their current rate, she says the gap won't be closed until 2050. "It's glacial" she says.

The path to equity
Standiford and others who follow the issue say there are a handful of ways to speed up the process. The first step, says Standiford, is to make employees aware that wage discrimination is illegal. In recent years, many states have enacted more stringent legislation to protect women's wages in the workplace. Maine's equal pay laws have been on the books since 1965 but were rarely enforced. In 2001 the state Legislature agreed to put more bite into the law.

The strengthened law, which more clearly defined the original statute, has resulted in wage discrimination becoming a higher profile issue for employers and employees, according to Fisher. Now, all employers regardless of size are required to post signs that lay out pay equity rules and ways employees can seek help from the state. Companies also are barred from retaliating against employees who lodge complaints about wage discrimination.

Despite the increased attention to the topic, the number of complaints fielded by the Maine Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Standards remains minimal. In most years, according to Fisher, the agency receives one or two complaints. Last year, MDOL received a total of two complaints, both of which Fisher says were the result of admitted flubs on the part of the employers. In each case, a female employee was promoted without having her pay classification raised to the next level. And in both cases, the companies quickly admitted their mistakes, raised the employees' wages and retroactively compensated them at the higher pay rate. (Because the complaints were handled before MDOL had to take action, the agency didn't disclose the names of the companies.)

The best efforts of legislators, however, haven't been enough to speed up the erasure of the wage gap. "Legislation can only do so much," says Elizabeth Gale, director of public policy at Business and Professional Women/USA, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. "It'll take a change in attitude from women and businesses. Women need to take it upon themselves to ask for better pay and promotions, and businesses need to be better aware about how they're paying women."

One step businesses can take, says Gale, is to perform a self-audit that examines hiring and promotion practices and compensation systems. In 2000, the University of Maine System conducted such a study, comparing the annual salaries of male and female faculty and including variables such as rank, tenure and advanced degrees. (UMS in the late 80s did a similar study of non-professional, hourly employees.) The study found that that women faculty members in certain parts of the system were paid less than their male counterparts, with annual salary gaps ranging from $173 to $1,647. The study recommended systematic adjustments to women's salaries to bring them in line with male faculty members. According to Tracy Bigney, executive director of human resources at UMS, those adjustments were implemented in 2001.

Meanwhile, some state programs are trying to attract women to jobs in traditionally male-dominated industries such as computer programming, truck driving and construction with the lure of training and the potential for a well paying and upwardly mobile career. "Maine has a changing workforce," Standiford says, "and it's important to acknowledge and understand that women are a critical part of that workforce."

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