EDITORIAL: Governor Raimondo, Please Walk the Walk as Women Deserve It
Monday, January 26, 2015
Congratulations on being elected Rhode Island’s first female Governor. One of the reasons you were elected was that women in Rhode Island strongly supported you and heard your loud and consistent message of equaling the opportunity and pay for women.
Despite only winning with 40.8% of the vote, it is clear that almost all Rhode Islanders want you to succeed.
A cornerstone of your campaign was pledging to end gender discrimination for Rhode Island women, but sadly a GoLocal review of the salaries you are paying your own staff is anything but fair.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST1) Women on your staff make 14% less than men
2) Women with the same titles as their male counterparts make 36% less than their male counterparts
3) Four of the five top appointees are men and the only woman is a holdover from the three previous Governors and she was first appointed by GOP Governors.
It seems as if you failed to remember to your campaign white paper, “Paycheck Fairness: Ending Gender Discrimination for Rhode Island Women” that you aggressively campaigned on.
“According to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, women in Rhode Island earn 81 cents for every dollar paid to men. Pay disparities for women exist across all occupations, regardless of education, industry, marital status or other factors. Median earnings for women are less than those for men in 264 of 265 major occupation categories. And the gap is even bigger for minority women: Black women in Rhode Island earn only 55 percent of the wages of white, non-Hispanic men, with Hispanic women earning only 44 percent.”
It is difficult to analyze the pays of minority men and women against their white and male counterparts on your staff as you have named so few minorities to your staff as to be able to conduct any analysis.
As one national pay equity expert was quoted in last week’s GoLocal story:
"This may be an issue of equal pay for equal work. If the women and men are doing the same work with the same length of experience and being paid differently, that’s gender wage discrimination," said Michele Leber, Chair of the National Committee on Pay Equity, of the Raimondo administration.
As your administration is in its first month, it is the perfect time to correct this issue and reaffirm your commitment to equal pay for equal work. Revamp your staff’s compensation and pay women fairly. Chalk it up to any early error because if you don’t your ability to pound the bully pulpit will be diminished by your own empty words.
Governor Raimondo, please lead by example and walk the walk.
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