Professors to address state commission

For every dollar a man earns working in Indiana, the average Hoosier woman earns 68 cents with the same degree of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions, according to the 2003 American Community Survey conducted by three IU faculty members. \nThis puzzle piece of data will be combined with other significant gender research findings to outline for Indiana legislators a picture of wage equity gaps between men and women, and between minorities and non-minorities, according to a statement.\nLynn Duggan, associate professor of labor studies; Michael Nicholson, visiting associate professor of labor studies; and Carol Rogers, associate director of the Indiana Business Research Center, will testify before the state's Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy at 10 a.m. today in room 404 of the Indiana State House in Indianapolis. Duggan and Nicholson will testify on behalf of the Coalition for Wage Equity in Indiana, formed in 2001 by labor and women's rights advocates in Bloomington, according to a statement.\nIU spokesman George Vlahakis said the University has no comment on this issue at this time.\nDuggan said the time is ripe for change in the state of Indiana in terms of equal pay for equal work, since federal law provides clear guidelines on how employers should pay minorities in the work force to prevent gaps in equal pay.\n"We know something has to be done," she said. "Indiana ranks as one of the worst four states in the country in terms of pay equity between men and women. This is really about the state legislature. The state hasn't done, and isn't doing, anything about the pay gap."\nCompared with every dollar a white Hoosier male earns for equal work, the 2000 census data demonstrated Native-American women earned 55 cents, Hispanic women earned 58 cents, Asian women earned 63 cents and African-American women earned 66 cents.\nThe Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits unequal pay for equal work by federal law. Also, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically Title VII, prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. However, current federal law does not address lack of pay for women in female-dominated occupations in which pay is "systematically less," according to a statement.\nIn 1999, Rep. Linda Lawson (D-Hammond) introduced legislation to disclose hiring practices aimed at closing the gender pay discrepancies, but the bill died on the floor.\nDuggan said the gender pay gap is just one issue women face while working in careers favored, dominated and administered by men.\n"A gender pay gap is going to exist when women are regulated to certain kinds of jobs like clerical work, teaching and health services," she said. "Some economists say: 'women choose this work.' Maybe women crowd into certain professions because they don't like to work in a male dominated culture? Women get harassed because of their gender, and often face crude behavior from men. Women faced the constrained choice of working around other women."\nCurrently, women consist of about 47 percent of Indiana's workforce. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the median annual income of single mothers in Indiana is $22,765, according to a statement.\nThe Coalition for Wage Equity will request the legislature to appoint an Equal Pay Commission, who reports to the Governor through a third-party state agency such as the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, to study the causes, consequences, extent, and remedies -- actions that need to be taken, of gender pay gaps and disparities throughout Indiana. \nDuggan said the ideal commission will advocate for women and minorities, since it will represent the interests of labor, business, researchers and non-profit organizations.\nThe coalition was formed by concerned campus community individuals and organizations that wanted to build enough support to force the state legislature to listen to issues of gender and racial inequities. In terms of equal pay for equal work, Duggan said employees have the right to know what factors govern their paychecks.\n"Why does a male carpenter make three times what a certified nursing assistant does?" Duggan asked. "We don't live in a megalopolis like Chicago or New York City, but do women have to become professionals to become equally paid for the same work? A woman's work isn't valued as much as a man's because a woman is doing it."\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.