Pay Transparency for Federal Contractor Employees

How do you know if you are getting paid what other's earn if you can't ask them? Well you can!

"Pay Equity: The Minnesota Experience" is now available!

Here's what we did! 

Excerpted from the summary and full report...

• State Government Pay Equity Act
  
  The State Government Pay Equity Act has eliminated the gender pay gap for job classes* of comparable value. 

• Women in state government employment today on average earn 89% of male wages, a 20 percentage point improvement since 1976.
  
  
• 
  

  To close the lingering 11 cents gender wage gap, not only will more women have to go into traditional male occupations, but more men will have to go into traditional female occupations. If office/clerical jobs were held equally by men and women, and skilled craft jobs were held equally by both genders, the state government wage gap would decrease to 2 percent, no longer a significant difference.

  
  
  Local Government Pay Equity Act
  
  Women in local government employment on average earn 88% of male wages. An improvement over the private/public sector where women earn 81% of male wages. 
  
  When wages are compared for job classes* of comparable value, the gender wage gap disappears. 
  
  
  • 
    

Full Report: http://www.oesw.leg.mn/PDFdocs/Pay_Equity_Report2016.pdf

Summary: http://www.oesw.leg.mn/PDFdocs/PE_Report_Summary.pdf

*A job class is a group of similar jobs that have the same job title. Examples from the report p. 21 "Officials & Administrators, Professionals, Technicians, Protective Service, Paraprofessionals, Office/Clerical, Skilled Craft, Service Maintenance"

Wage Disclosure Law in Minnesota

"Notice to employees:  Under the Minnesota Wage Disclosure Protection law, you have the right to tell any person the amount of your own wages. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for disclosing your own wages. Your remedies under the Wage Disclosure Protection law are to bring a civil action against your employer and/or file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at (651) 284-5070 or 1-800-342-5354."

For more information about this provision  click here. 

Pay Equity Resources from Minnesota Management and Budget

Here's a link to everything you need to know about pay equity reporting for local governments in Minnesota.

http://www.mn.gov/mmb/employee-relations/compensation/laws/local_gov/local-gov-pay-equity/

What does pay equity mean?

"Pay Equity is a method of eliminating discrimination against women who are paid less than men for jobs requiring comparable levels of expertise. This goes beyond the familiar idea of "equal pay for equal work" where men and women with the same jobs must be paid equally. A policy to establish pay equity usually means: 1) that all jobs will be evaluated and given points according to the level of knowledge and responsibility required to do the job; and 2) that salary adjustments will be made if it is discovered that women are consistently paid less then men for jobs with similar points. The following example shows a typical sex-based wage disparity."

The League of Minnesota Cities Supports Pay Equity - and we are thrilled!

It has been brought to our attention that The League of Minnesota Cities has changed its policy regarding the Local Government Pay Equity Act (LGPEA) and seeks to support its implementation.

The LGPEA was passed in 1984 and women receive pay increases every year as a result of the analysis and reporting required by this law.

To see the edits from the previous version here's a link to the draft of the policy changes. See pages 124-125.

http://www.lmc.org/media/document/1/draft2015policies.pdf

This is a big change from the previous policy and we fully support this new language. 

Previously, the League of Minnesota Cities supported "minimizing the reporting requirements" and "extending the reporting cycle". These actions have in the past increased the wait time between pay equity increases for the women in local government. Every year many women get pay increases as a result of the analysis required by the reporting process. Any time a woman doesn't get the pay increase she has earned her and her family's quality of life is negatively impacted.

The state mandated analysis and reporting done by local governments (cities, counties, school districts) seek to address gender based wage inequities in compensation. 

Any time the word "partner" appears in a policy statement in conjunction with women's paychecks is music to our ears.

Thank you League of Minnesota Cities for your change of heart. 

Women's Economic Security Act - YES!!!

This article articulates the challenge women face when they learn they are paid less than their male colleagues for work of equal importance. http://www.startribune.com/local/250266971.html

Ellen Ewald is telling her story at the Minnesota State Capitol in hopes of passing a bill to extend pay equity requirements to state contractors.

The Pay Equity Coalition of Minnesota supports her 100%!

Patty Tanji