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Declaration -Equal Pay Day

Date: April 16, 2005
Issues: Women


Declaration

Whereas, forty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, women and people of color continue to suffer the consequences of inequitable pay differentials;

Whereas, according to statistics released in 2004 by the U.S. Census Bureau, year-round, full-time working women in 2003 earned only 76% of the earnings of year-round, full-time working men, indicating little change or progress in pay equity;

Whereas, according to a January, 2002 report released by the General Accounting Office (the investigative arm of Congress), women managers in 7 of 10 industries surveyed actually lost ground in closing the wage gap between 1995 and 2000;
Whereas, according to an analysis of data in over 300 classifications provided by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics in 2001, women earn less in every occupational classification for which enough data is available, including occupations dominated by women (e.g., cashiers, retail sales, registered nurses and teachers);

Whereas, higher education is not free from wage discrimination according to a U.S. Department of Education analysis, reporting that, after controlling for rank, age, credentials, field of study and other factors, fulltime female faculty members earn nearly 9% less than their male counterparts;

Whereas, over a working lifetime, this wage disparity costs the average American woman and her family an estimated $523,000 in lost wages, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions;

Whereas, fair pay equity policies can be implemented simply and without undue costs or hardship in both the public and private sectors;

Whereas, fair pay strengthens the security of families today and eases future retirement costs, while enhancing the American economy; and

Whereas, Tuesday, April 19th symbolizes the date each year in which the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year,

Now, Therefore, I, Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., Governor of the State of Utah, do hereby declare April 19, 2005 as

Equal Pay Day

in Utah and urge the citizens of Utah to recognize the full value of women's skills and significant contributions to the labor force, and further encourage businesses to conduct an internal pay evaluation to ensure women are being paid fairly.

Governor

http://www.utah.gov/governor/news/2005/equal_pay.pdf

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