http://youtu.be/47cSSB7Si6s
Equal Pay Day, April 14th, marks the day when women have earned the same amount that men did in the previous year.
Mary Rita Chapman, President of the Las Cruces Branch of the American Association of University Women or AAUW, says she saw the wage gap problem first hand when she found out a male colleague made more than her at her first job.
“Well this was a guy that started with IBM at the same time I did,” Chapman said. “And all of a sudden I knew that on an annual salary, he was going to be making a couple thousand more a year than I was.”
Chapman spoke up and the problem was resolved. Vice President of Programs for the AAUW, Marsha Hokkanen says the problem has a large effect in Dona Ana County.
“Women are breadwinners,” Hokkanen said. “And here in Dona Ana County, 50% of women are the single head of household raising children, so it benefits everybody to have equal pay for women.”
A recent study by Nerdwallet found that Las Cruces is one of 22 cities where women earn more than men. Courtney Miller, an analyst who worked on the study says that the study was based on census averages and could be effected by many, Y different factors.
“The economy is moving toward more minimum wage jobs,” Miller said. “Men and women are going to make the same in those kinds of jobs, so that can impact the wage gap as well. Or other factors, like I already mentioned education, other industries that might affect more men or more women, or have different wage gaps. Some industries we know like the public service sector, so government jobs, tend to have a lower wage gap then say like private industry.
Hokkanen says that data makes sense looking at the industries in the area, but it doesn’t show the full picture.
“Our major employers are education, like NMSU,” Hokkanen said. “The school district, the county, and then the next major employer would be Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart, so that’s the way it is in the community.”
Miller agrees the study doesn’t show all the problems, but says it does help give a place to start.
“Have we made real progress or is this just a shift in Industry,” Miller said. “And I think that’s why looking at the wage gap on a local level kind of reveals some of those trends and those relationships between industry, or educational attainment and the wage gap.”
Chapman says that to see the problem you need to look salary by salary.
“Identical jobs is what we need to focus on right now,” Chapman said. “Making sure that you get the same pay. Dona Ana County has so many minimum wage jobs that everyone’s making the same, so we can’t work on that except to work on minimum wage itself.”
She says one thing that could help close the wage gap is teaching women graduating from college how to negotiate for a better salary when they are applying for jobs.
“That first salary you get, if you’re not in a minimum wage job, and you’re negotiating a salary in your first job,” Chapman said. “Everything is based on that from then for the rest of your working life. So, you have to negotiate. And men do it all the time. They just think it’s a natural thing, we don’t.”
She says that women earning a higher education, or technical training could also help to close the wage gap.
