University News
Equal Pay Day 2014 Celebrated at WIU
March 24, 2014
MACOMB, IL – A variety of activities are planned at Western Illinois University to commemorate the National Committee on Pay Equity's (NCPE) annual observance of Equal Pay Day (EPD) Tuesday, April 8.
Equal Pay Day, which raises awareness of unfair pay for women and people of color in the United States, was originated by the NCPE in 1996 to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. This date symbolizes how far into 2014 women must work to earn what men earned in 2013. (Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week.) Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay.
Locally, EPD activities are coordinated each year by the Feminist Action Alliance (FAA) student organization and WIU Women's Center staff and volunteers. This year's activities include:
• Monday - Tuesday, April 7 - 8: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the Union Concourse each day - A chance to spin the carnival wheel and receive free fair trade candy (amount based on gender/race spun) to learn about the wage gap and how it still continues to be a problem for women and other members of underrepresented groups in the United States.
• Tuesday, April 8 from noon – 1 p.m. in the Multicultural Center, first floor - A panel of faculty from the women's studies and political science departments will discuss the current state of the wage gap, differences across women's experiences, and current equal pay efforts in Congress. The Panelists include WIU Professors Lori Baker-Sperry and Janna Deitz and WIU Assistant Professor Holly Stovall.
According to statistics released in 2012 by the United States Census Bureau, women are paid, on average, 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid - a gap of 23 cents. Men's median income was $49,398 and women's was $37,791, a difference of $11,607. Median earnings for most women of color are even lower. In 2012, the earnings of African American women were $33,251, or 64 percent of all men's earnings. Latinas' earnings were $27,892, 53 percent of all men's. Asian American women's earnings in 2012 were $45,164, which is 87 percent of all men's earnings.
Earnings for both female and male full-time workers tend to increase with age, with a plateau after 45 and a drop off after 65. Generally, earnings increase as years of education increase for both women and men.
"The wage gap works in ways that don't necessarily appear theoretically consistent, however," said Stovall. "For instance, at every level of academic achievement, women's median earnings are less than men's earnings, and in some cases, the gap is larger at higher levels of education. Women make less money than men in every state, but some are worse than others."
The wage gap has narrowed since the 1970s, due largely to women's progress in education and employment. However, progress has stalled in recent years, and the wage gap does not appear likely to go away on its own.
"According to a new study (by American Association of University Women), a woman who graduates from the same school and in the same major as her male classmate and takes a full-time job in the same occupation as he does earns an average seven percent less than (he does) one year out of school," said Baker-Sperry, citing a Huffington Post article which highlights the recent AAUW study. "That gap widens the longer a woman works, so that over the course of her 35-year career, a woman with a college degree will make an average of 1.2 million less than a man with the same education."
The article continues to argue that if the pay gap were to close, it would be an incredible economic stimulus.
Each year for EPD, women's business and professional associations, labor groups, civil rights organizations and others committed to equal pay organize activities to increase awareness about how to solve wage equity.
For more information, contact the Women's Center at (309) 298-2242, at AR-Guzman-Riley@wiu.edu or visit pay-equity.org/.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing
Connect with us: