Legislators continue to push for equal pay

LANSING (AP) - Armed with a new study indicating gender pay inequities cost Michigan women $9 billion a year, equal pay advocates in the state Legislature hope that a 20-year struggle ends with a raise.

Despite the reality that equal pay hasn't surfaced as a priority of the Republican-run Legislature, two Democratic lawmakers said yesterday that proposing the legislation again can't hurt.

"It's important we keep the issue of pay inequity alive," said Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Twp.).

Rep. Lynne Martinez (D-Lansing) said women have made slow and steady progress. Michigan women, on average, make 70 cents for every dollar a man makes in comparable jobs, according to the study. Nationally, that number rises to 74 cents on the dollar.

"What we're fighting for is not so women can have an extra hairdo a year," Martinez said. "This is about access to food, clothing and shelter ... for women who are not being fairly compensated."

Similar bills were introduced by both lawmakers last session. Martinez's bill was narrowly adopted in the then Democratic-run House. It died in the Senate.

The Michigan State AFL-CIO issued the study conducted by its national organization, estimating that unequal pay has cost Michigan working women $9 billion each year. The average woman, they said, loses $420,000 during her lifetime because she isn't paid what she's worth.

The study analyzed recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"With more and more two income families, pay equity is a men's issue and a family issue," said Michigan State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Bertha Louise Poe.

Poe said that raising women's wages would help push more single mothers out of poverty because it would give them an average of nearly $6,000 more a year.

House Speaker Chuck Perricone (R-Kalamazoo Township) said he supports equal pay for equal work, but said federal and state laws should be adequate to stop such discrimination on the basis of gender.

"If there's racism or discrimination in the workplace, you don't throw more laws at it. You prosecute with the laws already there," Perricone said.

Business groups such as the Small Business Association of Michigan and the Michigan Manufacturers Association have opposed similar bills in the past. They have argued that the wage gap between men and women is closing, albeit slowly.

Critics also say such legislation is faulty because it doesn't define what "comparable work" means. Finding out might mean lengthy and costly court trials.

02-25-99