Thursday, April 10, 2008

Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day is an annual event hosted in many communities around Minnesota and the United States, noting that it takes women about 15 months to earn as much money as men earn in 12 months – so creative events such as "unhappy hours" occur in mid-April. Tuesday, April 22, 2008, has been designated National Equal Pay Day. As we get closer to the date, please stay tuned for a list of Equal Pay Day activities in Minnesota, by visiting the website of one of the major sponsors, Business and Professional Women of Minnesota, www.bpwmn.org.

1 comment:

Patty Tanji said...

For women in positions of power - Let's search our own souls about the value of jobs WE hire for. If you by chance hire both men and women, are you sure in your heart of hearts that you are not buying into the ancient wisdom that the man needs more money, that full-time work is always worth more per hour than part-time, etc? It would be surprising if we ourselves were immune from these prejudices. If you employ mostly women, are you ready to step up to the plate and decide which of their jobs require more skill, effort, and responsibility than others - not using easy ways out like whether they are part-time or full-time, how much education they have (education doesn't mean much if not needed for the particular tasks), how long they've been with the company... Worth considering before you try to influence other employers! If you've never thought about it before, this exercise may well convince you that it might be worthwhile having a system to evaluate, or at least cross-check, that is somewhat more objective than "the way we've always done it."