Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Every year, we hear the same report, that women make 77 cents to men's dollar. Sometimes it is 78, but basically, we get the same hand-wringing commentary and nothing changes. In fact, Catalyst just released its 2013 census reporting that there is still no progress for women as leaders.
That's why I was so excited to learn about Boston's new initiative, designed to do something different to close the wage gap.
According to WNPR's All Things Considered, "Boston thinks it has a solution. The city is working to be the first in the country to completely erase the gender wage gap. But will it work? That's our cover story today."
In April of 2013, Boston Mayor Menino established the Women's Workforce Council. The council is made up of hard workers across all employment sectors, and their mission is to make Greater Boston the premier place for working women in America by closing the wage gap and removing the visible and invisible barriers to women's advancement. Their priority is to come up with new and creative ways of achieving this mission. The NPR story reported on progress to date.
The Women's Workforce Council has created a compact to which businesses and companies of Boston are asked to pledge to pay their employees equal wages. It's a simple enough request. But since the country seems to be having trouble moving the dial on pay equity, how is it that in Boston the council has already persuaded over 40 businesses to sign their pledge?
Companies that sign the pledge agree to take three concrete steps:
Seattle provides a great example for the importance of this first step. When Seattle mayor Mike McGinn read the April issued report from the National Partnership for Women and Families, he found that Seattle had the widest gender wage gap out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country. Seeing this information and being able to assess it in front of his own eyes lead him to assemble a task force. This task force has a four step plan that hopes to launch a Gender Justice Initiative by January 2014.
Step 2 of Boston's plan: Pick three strategies to improve pay equality. The council provides suggestions which include increasing wage transparency, actively recruiting women to executive-level positions, and offering subsidized childcare.
The catch, says Minehan, is that none of this is required - it's all voluntary. Businesses need to find it in their own interest if this initiative is to succeed. So it's still up to women to advocate for themselves by delivering that message along with the now-ample data to support it.
Mayor Richard Berry of Albuquerque, New Mexico signed a bill in late November that would give a break to contractors working with the city if they would implement equal pay regulations. A task force headed by women's rights advocate Martha Burke is currently working to establish new guidelines for combating the wage gap within the city. While this bill only helps to effect firms bidding with the city in the public sector, the hope is that it will encourage employers in the private sector to pay equal wages as well.
By the end of the year, the Women's Workforce Council in Boston expects to have 50 companies on board with their initiative. They have one month left to rack up those last 10 companies, and at the rate they're running, why shouldn't they succeed? Seattle will soon have an established initiative to move forward with, and hopefully Albuquerque's first steps will influence positive next steps.
And hopefully these three cities, fronting active change for women's rights, can influence cities, states and the national government to not only support change for women, but positively act on making changes for women.