Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1946)
15 A Fifth Freedom By E LIZ A B E T H D O T SO N With tongue in cheek, a friend re marked, "Y es, there is a fifth freedom . . . the freedom to do a man’s work— for a woman’s pay!” Let us put it a little differently, however. The free dom to do any work of which one is capable, without receiving an equita ble and fair salary. This takes the gen der out of the situation, for the wom en’s problem of equal pay for compar able work is only part of a larger prob lem of fair wages and employment, which involves both men and women. During the war, women filled % of the home front industrial jobs. But in 1945 a woman in industry received an average of only 60% as much in her paycheck as did a man performing com parable work. Secretary of L a b o r Schwellenbach says, "Women have fully proved their ability as workers during the war. They have discharged their new and unusual tasks in a manner which entitles them to the highest com mendation.” Most industrial employers have been equally complementary with words, if not with wages. Some improvement has been made, in industry especially, over women’s pre war wages, which averaged 50 to 60% less than men’s. Let us consider two facts revealed by the 1940 census. First, the general level of wages was low in fields where women employees predom inated — nursing, teaching, welfare work, secretarial and others. This ten dency depressed wages for men in the same and related fields. Second, when men were employed in these fields their average receipts, though low, were ap preciably higher than the women’s. For example, among stenographers and sec retaries there were 15 times as many women as men. The men averaged $110.66 a month; the women $8Í.66. Surveys show that in 1940 in many industries, women’s salaries, regardless of the work performed, "averaged less than the lowest average for men.” In our own state offices it is known that unfair inequalities exist. A t one state institution a group of men and women are doing the same work. The men receive $5 more than the women in all grades of their classification. Women employed to replace office men in one department were given lower classifi cations and lower salaries. In another instance, a woman em ployee was given two advances in posi tion, each time replacing a male em ployee, doing exactly the same work he had done and assuming the same respon sibilities. Her first advance gave her a $5 increase. The second advance netted her $10 more. Her salary was still $50 less than that of her predecessor in the second position. This wide differential could not be justified on the basis of the male employee’s term of service. A t that time some new employees were be ing paid a higher wage than mployees in comparable classifications who were al ready in the service of the department. Many women feel that equal pay for the same work is not the only problem. They feel that equal pay for equal im portance and responsibility o f position should be recognized. Consider a pro fessional librarian with five years of college education and specialized train ing. She is contributing to the education and economic advancement of our Ore gon citizens. Still in spite of steady in creases in the last four years, she re ceives from 84c to 98c an hour ($150- $175 m onthly). An unskilled laborer working for the state receives from 73 c to 87c an hour. A skilled or semi-skilled laborer receives from 87c to $1.09 an hour. This statement in no way criti cizes the receipts of the laborer nor his right to them. It merely extends his (Continued on Page 16)
