On pay gap, Nevada moving in the right direction

At Make It Work Nevada, our organizing work has been anchored by economic justice issues, chief among them equal pay for equal work. We’ve spoken to numerous women in Nevada who have discussed, at length, their experiences with finding out they were being discriminated against or denied pay equity by their employer.

These stories aren’t unique to Nevadans. They are woven in the cultural fabric of the United States, and it’s time to put that to an end.

Nationally, black women earn 61 cents to the dollar of their white male counterparts in the workplace. This injustice, which can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost over a 40-year career, also is affecting other women of color.

At this year’s legislative session, Make It Work Nevada advocated heavily for the passage of Senate Bill 166, sponsored by state Sen. Pat Spearman, to address this issue. We organized our base of ambassadors to contact their legislators and share their stories of pay inequity and discrimination in the workplace. Brooke Malone, one of our ambassadors, shared her story of managing a team of men, all of whom earned more money than her.

“I considered myself loyal and hard-working. I was managing people twice my age. Not once did it cross my mind that I was being paid unfairly, but I was wrong,” she explained. She came to discover the drastic difference in her salary versus the pay for those who reported to her by way of some break room banter. “The guys were complaining about so much work for such little money and one of them mentioned a figure; I instantly got a pit in my stomach,” Malone said.

In Clark County, women are the predominant heads of household, which means that inequity in pay has very real consequences for us and our families. It can mean the difference between making rent or keeping the lights on. It can mean the difference between ensuring that our children have the supplies they need when school starts or having gas in the car to get them there. These are challenges that we shouldn’t have to face in the United States in 2019.

Spearman has been a consistent champion for the cause of equal pay because she understands the weight of the choices that Nevada’s women face. Her leadership in shepherding the passage of SB166 will go a long way to ensure that women have equity in pay in the workplace.

The bill permits individuals who discover they are being paid unequally to their counterparts/peers to report these discriminatory practices to the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. The commission then investigates the allegations and imposes fines on businesses that knowingly participate in discriminatory practices. This is a step in the right direction for women and our families.

Nationally, the landscape is more bleak. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 40% of U.S. households led by women are in poverty. This is the result of decades of unfair treatment and anti-family policies at the state and federal level. We are committed to advocating for federal legislation that will bring some reprieve to the millions of women trying to make it work every day.

In the interim, we will continue to organize women and lift up their experiences so that their interests, needs and concerns are considered when public policy is being shaped.

Erika Washington is the executive director of Make It Work Nevada, a nonprofit advocacy organization focusing on social equality, and family and workplace issues.