Gender Fairness

  • A very comprehensive look, from the Economic Policy Institute, at the differential in wages between men and women, with policy prescriptions.

  • Several states have passed legislation requiring insurers to offer birth control coverage, heading off cultural conservatives in the Trump administration and Congress who seek to eliminate contraceptive coverage in federally supported plans.

  • April 5, 2017 – California State Senator Hannad-Beth Jackson has proposed lowering the size of firms required to offer paid family leave from 50 to 20. Absence of paid family leave is a key driver of pay differentials and a barrier to workplace inclusion for women.

  • In April the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Kimberly Hively sued Evy Tech Community College in South Bend, IN, claiming that the school refused to hire her because she is homosexual. The Court’s ruling, if allowed to stand, will mark a significant expansion of the landmark 1964 law long advocated by the LGBT community. Legal experts predict that the case will eventually wind up before the Supreme Court.

  • A very comprehensive look, from the Economic Policy Institute, at the differential in wages between men and women, with policy prescriptions.

  • Motherhood may be as American as apple pie, but when it comes to wages, new studies indicate, it is the key force in pay disparity between men and women. Women college grads begin comparable careers at the same pay scale as their male colleagues, but lose ground during child-bearing years, when many leave the work force or cut back on hours. The solutions, this New York Times piece suggest, lie in changing arrangements between husbands and wives; and in rethinking workplace incentives which reward long hours.