>> >>PEGGY: The federal equal pay act was passed in 1963, when a woman made 59 cents
to every dollar a man made for the same work today women earn 77 cents for each dollar
earned by men, my guest president elect of the lawyer's club of San Diego is here with
details on why there's a wage gap, the long term losses and what a woman can do to get
salary equality.
Thank you so much for being here.
Tomorrow's national equal pay day, what does that actually mean?
>> >>: Equal pay day is the day in 2013 that women have to work to earn what their mail
counter parts earned in 2012.
It takes us 99 days into this year to earn what men earned last year.
>> >>PEGGY: For the whole year.
One of the missions of the lawyer's club which is a thousand?member local bar association
is the advancement for women's status and law, in society.
What types of occupations are we talking about where women are getting paid less than men?
Is it across the board, lawyers, is it the people working in restaurants?
>> >>: Peggy, it's women all across the wage spectrum and education spectrum, women are
earning less no matter their education, no matter their profession.
>> >>PEGGY: This has to have long?term consequences.
The wage project, I know estimates on average a woman earns about 10,000?dollars less per
year than a man for the same work.
They also found that compared to men over a woman's lifetime career I believe 18 to
64, high school graduates earn 700,000?dollars less, female college graduates earn about
a million dollars less than their mail counter parts and a accumulatively professional graduates
earn about two million dollars less than men with the same degree doing the same work.
What is the long?term implications of this sort of discrepancy?
>> >>: In the short?term, it means that women can't afford groceries, and rent, and health
care, and basic life necessities the same as men.
In the long?term, it means that women can't adequately save for retirement.
We know women out live men on average, and one of the most vulnerable populations in
San Diego is elderly women.
More live in poverty.
We know this is a long?term problem for women self?efficiency and economic security.
>> >>PEGGY: It trickles on years and years.
It's been five decades since the equal pay act passed.
I'm alarmed every time I see the data that in 2013, women still earned 23 cents less
per dollar than a man does during the same job.
Why?
>> >>: That's right, that figure is alarming.
Seventy?seven septs rr on the dollar we earn.
There's direct discrimination, and indirect discrimination.
Direct discrimination is controlling for all other factors, education, knowledge, skill,
experience, women that 40% of the gap in pay is to attributable to direct discrimination.
Implicit bias, we also have association bias, people hire and promote people that look like
them.
S the rr lots of indirect discrimination that attributes to women getting paid less.
>> >>PEGGY: What about the idea women aren't negotiating to say I want more money?
>> >>: That is part of it, but it's not as I said the whole picture.
One of the things that we can do is arm ourselves with information, right, peggy?
Information is power.
And so negotiating is really important.
>> >>PEGGY: How can a woman legally found out how much she's making compared to her
male counter part?
>> >>: There are resources women can can research salary information.
Salary .com, pay scale .com, university career office and ask for comparable information.
Right now, we don't actually have federal legislation that protects workers and allows
them to ask them employer for salary information.
That is what theй??
pay check fairness act is all about.
>> >>PEGGY: Where does it stand right now?
>> >>: The pay check fairness act died last year in the senate, it passed the house.
It's been reintroduced in congress this year, has 43 co?sponsored in the senate.
>> >>PEGGY: What are some practical ways women can start to increase their salary?
>> >>: They can educate themselves about salary, take a negotiation work shop and go in and
work negotiate, organizations can publicize the data about the pay gap.
I think your viewers will probably be alarmed.
We need to know more about this so we can fix this.
>> >>PEGGY: We have a lot more information on our website at KPBS.org, and we have links
for this equal pay and what can be done about it.
Joanna, thank you so much for talking with us.