Your support in ending wage discrimination
Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women Action Alert
Dear Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women Partners:
Women across Massachusetts need your support in ending wage discrimination. Currently, Massachusetts women earn just 76 cents for every dollar earned by men. “An Act Further Defining Comparable Work” (S689/H1880), a bill in the Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, has the potential to close this gap.
§ The Act will require employers to set wages according to gender-neutral factors such as responsibility, working conditions and skill level.
§ This legislation is at a critical juncture; it is currently in the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. The MCSW has urged the committee to bring this bill to a vote so that it may be reported out favorably by the committee and move forward in the process.
§ The MCSW has been working diligently for its passage, and now we need your help. Please ask your members to call their legislators today and ask them to make sure that this bill is voted on, and ask them to report their call and the legislator’s response to Mcsw@state.ma.us <mailto:Mcsw@state.ma.us> .
§ Losses due to wage discrimination often mean the difference between a living wage and poverty. Had comparable work been the enforceable law of the state, the women cafeteria workers in the Everett School District, plaintiffs in the pay discrimination case Jancey v. School Committee of Everett, would not have lost an average of $259,000 over a 30-year lifetime of earning.
We especially need constituents of Senator McGee and Representative Coakley-Rivera, chairs of the joint committee, to let them know how important this legislation is to the women in their districts. In addition, if you can identify constituents in these districts who are willing to come to the State House to personally visit their offices, please let us know as soon as possible.
Senator Pat Jehlen (D 2nd Middlesex) and Representative Alice K. Wolf (D 25th Middlesex District) are the lead sponsors of the legislation, SB689/HB1880 “An Act Further Defining Comparable Work”.
Here is what we need legislators to hear when you contact their office:
Hi, my name is _____________ and I live in _______[town]________________. As member of [union, advocacy group, etc.] and a constituent, I ask you to support the pending pay equity legislation “An Act Further Defining Comparable Work” (S689/H1880), by urging Rep. Coakley-Rivera and Sen. McGee, Chairs of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee to bring the bill to a vote so it can be reported favorably out of committee.
“An Act Defining Comparable Work” will help to close the gender wage gap in Massachusetts. The bill would help to boost overall household income, and means the difference between stability and poverty for many women of the Commonwealth.
Please urge all members of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development to vote “An Act Further Defining Comparable Work” favorably out of committee and move the bill through the legislative process.
Thank you.