skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

CO Rallies for Equal Pay

play audio
Play

Monday, April 11, 2011   

DENVER - What men earn in a five-day workweek takes women, on average, seven days to earn. That's a problem, say workers' advocates. Tuesday is "Equal Pay Day," and Coloradans will mark the occasion with a rally at the State Capitol in support of equal pay for equal work - and the 1963 Equal Pay Act, which some believe is not being upheld.

Erin Bennett, the Colorado director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, says the date of the rally is significant.

"Women have to work essentially from Jan. 1, 2010, until April 12, 2011, to make the equivalent of what men made working from Jan 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2010."

Bennett says the pay gap is even larger for women of color: African-American women earn on average 71 cents and Hispanic women 56 cents, for every dollar earned by a white man.

Some explain this pay gap differently, saying it exists not because of systemic discrimination, but because of individual workers' choices of career fields or their decision to work part-time in order to raise children. Bennett says that's only part of the problem.

"Since the Equal Pay Act passed, the pay gap has only closed by half a cent per year. If it keeps closing at the same rate, we actually won't reach equal pay for 45 more years - until 2056."

Many women work in jobs that some consider less valuable and therefore they are paid at lower rates, she says, but the pay gap is compounded by a lack of worker-friendly benefits, such as paid sick days or family leave. Federal legislation making it easier to verify pay equity stalled in Congress last year, in part because of lack of Republican support.

The Colorado Civil Rights Division, www.dora.state.co.us/civil-rights, handles pay equity complaints. More information about 9to5 Colorado is available at http://www.9to5.org/local/colorado.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021