Jealous Announces Plan To Improve Enforcement and Compliance Of Pay Gap Laws, Receives Endorsement From Maryland Chapter Of National Organization For Women

Press Release

TODAY, Tuesday, October 16, Ben Jealous, former National President & CEO of the NAACP, announced a new policy to improve enforcement and compliance with Maryland pay gap laws and received an endorsement from the Maryland Chapter of the National Organization For Women (Maryland NOW) PAC, an organization that has worked tirelessly on key issues surrounding women's economic empowerment. A recent study concluded that women lose a combined total of more than $18.2 billion annually due to the pay gap and nearly 60% of women identify equal pay as one of the most important issues facing women in the workplace.
To address this issue, as governor, Jealous would propose legislation to create inspectors in the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation that will request pay information from companies and conduct reviews to prevent systemic pay discrimination. These inspectors will be tasked with ensuring compliance and enforcement with all equal pay legislation in Maryland, removing this burden from solely being carried by women in the workforce to ensure accountability.
Currently, women in Maryland are paid 84 cents for every dollar paid to men. Over the course of a single year, on average, Maryland women make over $10,000 less than their male counterparts, translating into what could be 79 more weeks of food, five more months of mortgage and utility payments, nearly 8 more months of rent or more than 12 additional months of child care if women earned the same amount as men for the same jobs.
For Maryland's women of color, the impact is more severe with Black women paid 69 cents on the dollar and Latinas 47 cents.

"Pay discrimination is unacceptable and we should be doing more to ensure that women get equal pay for equal work" said Jealous. "The onus should not be on women to ensure their employers are following the law, and as governor I'll make sure that Maryland is a national leader in not just passing equal pay laws, but making sure that those laws are enforced. As a civil rights leader and a businessman, I know that our greatest strengths as a state come from ensuring that everyone can participate in our economy fully, and receive the wages they deserve to take care of their families. I'm honored to have the support of Maryland NOW PAC as we work together to build a more fair, transparent and inclusive economy that values the contributions of women."
"Ben's background as a civil rights leader and his progressive vision for Maryland is one that the women of our state very much need for our next governor," said Sandy Bell, Maryland NOW's PAC Chair. "Our members are very concerned about Larry Hogan's attacks on our schools and the draconian increases in healthcare premiums which hurt not just women, but their families, seniors and small businesses."
"Our schools have not only fallen in national rankings, but he actually invited Betsy DeVos into our state to champion Trump's destruction of public school education. This was a real slap in the face to every public school educator in Maryland," continued Bell. "His failure to oppose the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court represents another example of his unwillingness to oppose Trump's agenda even when it would certainly be in the best interests of the people of our state."
Baltimore NOW President Jillian Drummond, also a MD NOW PAC representative, spoke to the need to elect Ben. "My chapter's concern is that Larry Hogan really doesn't have a vision for our state for issues that matter to our members when it comes to lackluster job and wage growth. We're very late to the table when it comes to promoting a $15 minimum wage. Making those dollars go farther when it comes to lower prescription drug costs or making a community college education free would go a long way in helping women survive economically here."
In addition to today's announcement, Jealous has also released proposals to ensure that a majority of his cabinet are women. His platform also includes various other proposals to address issues that disproportionately impact women, including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, universal full-day pre-k to help with rising childcare costs and Medicare-For-All, which would ensure women do not pay more for their healthcare simply because of their gender.
Under Larry Hogan, Maryland's economy has languished. Since Hogan took office, the average worker nationwide has taken home $5,300 in inflation-adjusted wage growth, while in Virginia the average worker has taken home $8,500 and more than $16,000 for Delaware. The average Maryland worker has only seen a modest increase of $473 under Larry Hogan. Overall, under Larry Hogan's tenure Maryland has suffered from the second worst job growth in the region, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and is dead last in the region in the last year.
As a Partner at Kapor Capital, Jealous has invested in over 20 companies, helping to create or support over 1,000 jobs.

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