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
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