It’s 2015, and equal pay for equal work is still not a reality.
On average, women make 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. For minority women, this gap is even wider, with black and Latina women being paid 64 and 56 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white males.
Tuesday, April 14 marked Equal Pay Day, a day symbolizing how far into the year the average American woman would need to work to earn the equivalent of what the average American man made the previous year.
Members of the American Association of the University Women of Tennessee, students and faculty were stationed outside the Rocky Top Café, talking to passerby about the current climate for American women in the work field, the gender pay gap and awareness for the day dubbed “Equal Pay Day.”
For Katie Kleinkopf, a graduate assistant in women’s studies, the realities of payment inequity are not limited to the “Mad Men rules.”
“If women aren’t equal to men, they aren’t making the same pay, and our country can’t progress,” Kleinkopf said. “We say that we are the leaders of the free world, but we’re not. We’re still stuck in these antiquated gender roles.”
A research report from the AAUW showcases the pay gap that still exists in Tennessee, with men’s median earning at $41,493 while women make a median income of $34,301, or 80 percent of the male salary.
Representatives from AAUW’s Knoxville chapter also claim that women of all races, ethnicities and educational backgrounds are affected by the pay gap as well.
President of the local AAUW chapter, Anne Loy, explained how the inequity is particularly harmful to women who act as sole providers for their family’s income.
“There are so many women are single mothers and are in poverty, and they are trying to raise a family and trying to work,” Loy said. “If women receive the same amount of money that a man does for the same job, that would raise a good percentage of women, single parents, out of poverty.”
Loy said this is an ongoing fight, and she said she plans to petition for persuasive legislature by writing regular letters and emails to Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.
Despite the AAUW’s praise for President Obama’s passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, Loy reported that there has been little interest for the issue in the state of Tennessee’s legislative body.
“I write to them several times a year, but they respond that they are not in favor,” Loy said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take. More women in government, I suppose.”
Yet, AAUW’s advocacy could make an impact on the organization of UT’s own women’s athletic department.
Through the organization’s Legal Advocacy Fund, Loy and her fellow AAUW members provided financial and organizational backing for the 2012 lawsuit filed against UT by Jennifer Moshak, Heather Mason and Collin Schlosser, former employees of the women’s athletics department.
The three plaintiffs argued they were fired from their positions after filing complaints about unequal payment from the men’s and women’s department in UT Athletics under then newly-hired athletic director Dave Hart.
Linda D. Hallman, AAUW executive director and CEO, said this of the organization’s support for the three former UT employees in an August 2014 statement:
“This case is an opportunity to grapple with some of the gender gaps still at play in university athletics…We are proud to stand with these plaintiffs in their fight for fairness. Their claims shine a light on why AAUW does this type of work, day in and day out.”
The case is currently set for trial on June 23 at the U.S. District Court of East Tennessee.
For more information about the AAUW’s study of the pay gap, visit http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/public-policy/aauw-issues/gender-pay-gap/
