STATEMENT ON PAY EQUITY FOR WOMEN BY CONGRESSMAN STENY H. HOYER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-00066R000100100008-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/05/19: CIA-RDP89-00066R000100100008-5
STENY H. HOYER
6TH DISTRICT, MARYLAND
Congress of the 'United states
1louse of 'Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE,
GENERAL GOVERNMENT
LABOR,
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES,
EDUCATION
STATEMENT ON PAY EQUITY FOR WOMEN
BY CONGRESSMAN STENY H. HOYER
In the past 30 years, 60 percent of the people newly entering the
labor force in this country have been women; and it is anticipated that
in each year of the next decade one million additional women will join
them. More than half are women with children under 18.
These official statistics reflect the notion that this so-called
"flood" of women into the marketplace is a relatively recent phenomenon.
The truth of the matter is that women have always worked; they just have
not always been fairly compensated for their labor.
As far back as 1876, close to 30 percent of the households in Balti-
more, Maryland, relied in some way on female-generated income. By 1900
that number had risen to 40 percent. While the number of women in the
compensable labor force has almost doubled in the past 44 years, the
reason for this entry has remained relatively the same - economic
necessity.
Despite the rapid growth of women in the labor force, they still
remain concentrated in certain industries and occupations, earning sub-
stantially less than their male counterparts. The majority of working
women fill only 20 percent of the 441 occupations listed in the census
occupational classification system; 80 percent in four job fields --
clerical work, service industries, retail sales and factories and plants.
Of the ten lowest paid occupations, six are 90 percent filled by
women -- 84 percent of our, health aides are women; 85 percent are nurses
aides; 63 percent are cooks; and 13 percent are farm laborers.
Today the median wage for full-time women workers is $12,172. For
full-time men it is $20,682. Using these statistics, it takes women
nine days to gross what men gross in five -- and the federal government
is no exception, where the average salary for men is $30,553 and for
women it is $15,579 -- little more than half.
I know that I need not go any further with these statistics, but
they are staggering. Women are not marginal workers and can no longer
be regarded as a limitless pool of cheap labor.
Occupational segregation is extreme and it is persistent. Within
the federal government, there is a statistically significant inverse
correlation between sex and salary in the general schedule and equivalent
grade. But it is not only the federal government that shows this segregatio]
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We need go no further than to make a cursory examination of the
crisis in this country's educational system. The teachers of this
country have been predominantly women, and, as such, our educators have
historically been underpaid. Despite the fact that we entrust the in-
tellectual instruction of our children to them; despite the requisite
skills, demanding responsibilities and extensive training we demand of
our educators; and because it is an occupation historically filled by women,
teaching has become a second class job and one vastly undervalued.
We are now being forced to see the long-range effects of this occu-
pational segregation as our most qualified and educated women look to
other, more highly paid fields of endeavor.
This phenomenon is not unique to education. More and more women are
rapidly entering areas previously dominated by men -- law, medicine,
politics, space exploration, engineering -- where they can be more
fairly and equitably compensated.
Sex discrimination is clearly costly in the long run. For what we
see happening is that jobs traditionally filled by women -- jobs under-
valued precisely for that reason will become harder and harder to fill
with quality people as our top-notch women seek careers that are more
financially rewarding. ,
In the landmark school desegregation case, Brown v Board of Education,
a unanimous court stated that segregation and equality cannot co-exist.
This applies equally to occupational segregation which has invariably
led to wage discrimination.
Which brings me to the real issue we are confronting today -- sex
discrimination. It is invidious and devastating, and is pervasive
throughout our society.
We at the federal level have an opportunity to do something about
this discrimination, and not only by adopting needed legislation. We
must begin with the federal system. We must look at the federal classi-
fication system and make position-to-position comparisons across classi-
fication group lines. The federal government should be a model for others
to follow. This is true as well for our state and county governments.
Putting an end to exploitation is not without costs. Pay equity is
a difficult issue. We are confronted with an administration intent on
diluting the scope and strength of existing civil rights laws, and one
that has steadily retreated from enforcement of those laws.
But obstacles cannot and must not be a consideration in promoting
and enforcing civil rights.
Madame Chair, by assuming the leadership role in promoting pay equity
and by vigorously pursuing the inequities resulting from discrimination
in our society, you are proving that the barriers will be overtaken, the
course made smooth and less difficult. I am certain that with your leader-
ship and commitment, and the leadership and commitment of all of us here
today, we will succeed.
The bottom line on the issue of equal pay for comparable work is
nothing more, and nothing less, than the issue of equal rights for women.
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