Why Pick on the Women?

 Minnesota is and historically has been a leader in women’s employment outside the home. Recent studies show that women now make up 50.8% of Minnesota’s workforce.  Statewide, according to the American Community Survey 2008, Minnesota’s married women contribute 44% of family income and almost 40% of Minnesota mothers with children in the home earn 50% or more of family earned income.  This, even though women only earn, on average, about 76 cents for every dollar a man earns.

Now an effort is being made in the state legislature to effectively cut women’s wages.  Even though women earn, on average, only 82% of what men earn in public employment, House file 7 and Senate file 159 would abolish the pay equity provision in state law that has been in force since the mid-1980s.  Statewide, but especially in out-state areas, this could be disastrous.  Most of the women who work for cities, counties, school districts or other arms of government are helping to support families.

Yet, in December, 2010, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce issued a report calling for repeal of the pay equity law calling it an “unnecessary and costly mandate”  because local governments are required every three years to file a report to show that they are in conformance with the legislation.  Such reports now can be filed electronically, taking an hour or two on average.  Still, a number of institutions hire consultants to assist in them in filing the reports.  Isn’t it possible that money could be saved by forgetting the consultants and letting a good woman employee file the report?

Why pick on the women?  If the goal is to save governments money, why shouldn’t the costliest wage earners be cut?  If legislators and others also are worrying about pension costs, they should factor in the fact that those who earn more get larger pensions.  These and other questions should be part of the debate about the proposals to repeal pay equity laws.

MinnPost – ‘The Good Fight’: ‘I think America’s greatness can be found in its struggle to open doors’

MinnPost – ‘The Good Fight’: ‘I think America’s greatness can be found in its struggle to open doors’.

My career has been about opening doors, and I believe we opened doors in
the 1984 campaign. Geraldine Ferraro got young women thinking about
what they could do in politics. We didn’t win that year, but they saw
the possibilities. They saw Ferraro debate George H.W. Bush and beat
him. They saw that a glass ceiling had been shattered and that women
could start thinking about higher possibilities. As I write these words,
someone right down the hall might be thinking about running for
president. It’s been a tonic for America, and it’s not going to go back.