The League wore red and handed out snacks to educate students about the gender wage gap
The League of Women Voters of the Copper Country were wearing red in front of the Husky statue on Tuesday Mar. 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for Equal Pay Day. This day symbolizes the extra days women work on average in order to earn what the average man earned the previous year. Members of the organization were spreading awareness about the gender pay gap by handing out informational pamphlets, cookies, and oranges to students on campus.
The League and its co-sponsors; Friends of the Michigan Tech Library, Michigan Tech Graduate School, Michigan Tech Society of Women Engineers, and Women in Academy; were wearing red to represent how far women and minorities are “in the red” when it comes to pay. According to the pamphlets they handed out, the current gender pay gap for women compared to men is 81 percent for full-time workers and 75 percent for all workers including part-time and seasonal employees.
Barry Elizabeth Fink, a board member of the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country, explained, “This is not just a women’s issue, income is a family issue, and if you have a wife or partner who is not earning equivalently that over a course of a career means losing out on thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.”
There are several things that individuals can do to address the gender pay gap, according to the League. Since there are not many changes being initiated at the federal level in the United States, the best thing to do is to contact your local and state representatives. Tell them to support the Paycheck Fairness Act, which adds procedural protections to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Raise the Wage Act, which seeks to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour. The League also advises being an advocate for your colleagues and employees, helping to spread the word and supporting events like Equal Pay Day each year, and voting for better state laws that prevent discrimination.
Fink also left with saying, “It needs to be a community-wide understanding in order for us to have big progress. The gap has been gradually closing, but all of a sudden last year we went backwards, so we have to double up our efforts and keep that knowledge in front of everybody.”
If you would like to become a member of the League of Women Voters of the Copper Country, you can visit their website at my.lwv.org/michigan/copper-country. Or, you can contact the organization at 1-517-258-2452.
