Equal Pay Day: Scholarship on Advocacy and Equity
Today, Friday, April 18, 2008 is Equal Pay Day. The National Women's Law Center is encouraging bloggers to voice their support for the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Lest you think the wage gap doesn't reach attorneys (after all those law firms have lock-step and hour-based associate salaries and partners are just paid according to their client base, right?) study after study has confirmed that gender pay equity continues to be a goal and not a reality in the legal profession as well.
Recently Judge Kaye and Anne Reddy reported that as recently as November 2007, the National Association of Women Lawyers found that, of thirty-five firms willing to report compensation by gender, the average median compensation of a male equity partner was almost $90,000 higher than that of a female equity partner, $27,000 higher than that of a female nonequity partner, and $20,000 higher in the of counsel position. 90% of firms report their top earning member is a man.
I've written on the motherhood wage gap - that is the penalty working mothers pay when they have children that cannot be attributed to reduced time or commitment in the office. National longitudinal studies by the US Department of Labor have documented a statistically significant drop in the wage trajectories of women with children not experienced by fathers.
Blogging for a cause is a growing trend and part of a more general recognition of the power blogging can have for women in particular!
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Comments
Wear Red for Equal Pay Day
I am wearing my red today! Thanks for the insightful post.
The July-August 2008 Issue
The July-August 2008 Issue of Pink magazine has a run down of the salaries of the 12 women that are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. In my opinion the numbers look good.
Pink included a chart that lists the 12 women, their base salary and their total CEO compensation. Then it lists a male CEO from a comparable company and his base salary and total compensation. 9 of the 12 women have salaries that equal or exceed those of male CEOs and in total, the salary of these 12 women is greater than the total for the men. I think this is a picture of equality especially because I think the differences are attributable to the sometimes vastly different revenues of the companies the article compares and are also likely due to experience and tenure.
The article laments at the differences in total compensation (which includes stock and option awards), where only 6 women equaled or bested the men and I agree that this is less than great. However, an expert quoted in the article suggests (in what is a catty and accusatory response) that this compensation difference is "easier to hide" which implies that Company's are trying to hide the compensation diferential between men and women by rewarding male-ness with extra stock options. I'm not sure that I buy that. Each of these companies only has one CEO at a time and the total compensation numbers are just as readily available to the public and the stockholders as are the salary numbers.
Anyway, you go girls! I think this information indicates the glass is half full rather than half empty. (Or the glass ceiling is half open, rather than half closed, if you will.)
Now, f there were just more women at the top 500 companies we would have a bigger pool to look at . Hey, it's Friday... I can dream, can't I?