Wage equity not enforced

Many believe a female college student today may expect to enter the workplace and succeed without being treated unfairly. This is 2002, and the battles about equal rights and fair pay were fought 30 years ago, many believe.\nAccording to the message being delievered Thursday at Bloomington City Hall, they are wrong.\nA woman in the United States today earns 74 cents for every dollar a man makes. In Indiana, a woman earns 66 cents per dollar earned by a man. Equal pay has been a federal law for several decades, but not one that is being enforced.\nThis was the message of the panel held Thursday evening. Focus on Women's Issues: Wage Equity was presented by the Bloomington Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee for Wage Equity in Indiana. \nThe panel is one in an on-going series done by the commission. They are a response to the commission's attempt to identify the problems faced by women in the community through focus groups and surveying. Unequal pay was one concern the commission identified. Panel member Toby Strout hopes the panel raises awareness.\n"A lot of people think we fought these battles in the 60s and 70s, but research shows that the gap is widening again after 1995. We want (women) to understand what is happening and the consequences for all of us," said Strout, who also works for the Bloomington Middleway House, which offers shelter and counseling support to people in abusive relationships. \nFrom an IU economics professor to a woman with 25 years of experience in the day-care field, the panelists brought a wide range of issues to light. \nMilton Fisk, IU emeritus professor and member of Jobs with Justice, critiqued the market solution to wage equity, a belief that market forces control job wages.\n"The attitude that what is good for the market is good for everyone has to be changed," he said. "The 90s should have improved wage equity. They did not."\nJoanne Sanders spent years working with theatrical stage employees. She says understands the problems with division of labor even in a career with so much flexibility. She also understands wage equity or lack thereof.\n"I still have to have more credentials to earn the same amount of money as men in my field," she said. \nSanders argued against the idea of men needing to make more money because they are heads of houses, and that women are given breaks in the market place.\n"You don't get sold a car for 76 percent of what a man would, nor do you pay less for a loaf of bread," she said. \nProfessor Lynn Duggan of the IU Labor Studies Program brought an economist's perspective to the panel. She believes what is needed in this country besides equal pay is fair pay. The country needs to address the amount of respect afforded "women's work."\n"What we don't have is a fair pay act," she said. "Women choose their jobs to get away from men. They are safer from sexual harassment and more comfortable."\nBobbie Summers knows what it is like to be doing "women's work," having worked in the day-care industry for 25 years. She noted that day-care employees and teachers are being paid less that they were 20 years ago. She believes the attitude in society is to blame for women being denied wages they may well earn in their chosen fields.\n"I think it is pervasive to think that men are entitled," she said. "We need to see that women are entitled to good wages, too"