Earth Day sign
ready to unveil
Lady Loggers win
eight straight
PAGE 7A
SPORTS • 4A
142nd YEAR, No. 204
MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
‘This
is why
I write
about
elves’
‘Get Lit’ book
fest wraps up with
author Q-and-A
By ERICK BENGEL
EO Media Group
Photos by JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Shawna Sykes, from the Oregon Employment Department, discusses statistics revolving around wage inequalities during a panel discus-
sion at the Judge Guy Boyington building Sunday. The panel was presented by the Lower Columbia Diversity Project and the Astoria and
Seaside branches of the American Association of University Women.
WOMEN CHALLENGE THE GAP
Secretary of state, others discuss wage inequality
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
J
eanne Atkins is accom-
plished. She was the state
director for U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley and his chief of staff
when he was Oregon House
speaker. She also managed the
women’s and reproductive health
section at the state Department of
Human Services.
But when Gov. Kate Brown
asked her to become secretary of
state, she said she had the same
twinge of self-doubt many women
in the workplace experience.
“First thing I went, ‘Me?’ You
know, ‘What did I ever do?’” At-
kins said Sunday afternoon during
a panel discussion on wage in-
equality by the Lower Columbia
Diversity Project at the Judge Guy
Boyington Building. “I’ve done a
lot.”
“And I tell women to be proud
of what they’ve done and,” she
paused, “it affects us all in that
way.”
Atkins — who replaced Brown
in March after Brown took over
from John Kitzhaber, who resigned
DPLGDQLQÀXHQFHSHGGOLQJVFDQGDO
LQYROYLQJKLV¿DQFpH²GHVFULEHG
unconscious bias as one of the
challenges women face at work.
The often invisible, built-in and
unfair perceptions about women
FRXOG EH KDUGHU WR ÀXVK IURP WKH
workplace than more overt forms
of discrimination.
Equal Pay Day
Tuesday is Equal Pay Day,
which marks how far into the new
year women have to work to make
as much as men earned over the
previous year. Women who worked
full time made 78 percent of what
men earned in 2013, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau. In Clatsop
County, the wage gap was wider,
with women at 66 percent of men.
“So it’s a local problem as well
as a national one,” Atkins said.
“Probably there is no community
that’s exempt.”
With Hillary Clinton, the former
U.S. secretary of state, seeking the
Democratic nomination for presi-
dent, and Democrats nationally us-
ing the wage gap as a theme against
Republicans, wage inequality will
likely be a political issue in the
2016 campaign.
The federal Equal Pay Act of
1963 prohibited businesses from
gender-based wage discrimination
against women who hold similar
jobs as men. A persistent wage gap,
however, has led Democrats to call
for legislation such as the Pay-
check Fairness Act, which would
limit the reasons for wage differen-
tials to factors such as education,
training and experience and bar re-
taliation against workers who seek
or disclose wage information to
validate complaints.
Senate Republicans, who claim
WKHOHJLVODWLRQZRXOGPDNHLWGLI¿
cult for businesses to base compen-
sation on work quality and
productivity, have blocked
a vote on the Paycheck
Fairness Act.
In Oregon, where
Democrats
con-
trol the Legislature,
bills are pending that
would prohibit dis-
ciplinary
action
against
workers
who inquire about or
disclose wage infor-
mation and would make
gender-based wage dis-
crimination a civil rights
violation.
Battling bias
Economists see bias — conscious
or unconscious — as one of many
factors that contribute to the wage
gap, and perhaps a diminishing one.
Jeanne Atkins, Oregon’s secretary of state, gives an update on several
wage bills during a panel discussion on wage inequality.
See GAP, Page 10A
CANNON BEACH — The nov-
elist Karen Joy Fowler said the “fab-
ulous futurist” Bruce Sterling once
fantasized about a Hell for Discard-
ed Characters, where the inhabitants
are forced to hold up signs of shame
that bespeak their shortcomings: “I
was two-dimensional,” “I did not ad-
vance the plot,” etc.
Alas, these condemned creations,
unable to justify their existence on
the page, were casualties of the writ-
ing process, when ideas are aban-
doned, plot threads are aborted and
See GET LIT, Page 10A
Clatsop
County
honors
givers
County: Citizens gave
over 22,000 hours of
service in 2014
By The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners honored various
citizens with Volunteer of the Year
awards Wednesday night during its
regular meeting.
The Board of Commissioners
also approved a proclamation de-
claring April 12-18 Volunteer Week
in Clatsop County.
In 2014, 631 volunteers provided
a total of 22,619 hours of service to
the county, a value of $482,921, ac-
cording to the county.
The Volunteer of the Year awards
recipients are as follows:
See GIVERS, Page 10A
:DUUHQWRQ.LDKHOSV7KH+DUERUZLWKGLI¿FXOWULGH
Some child
sexual assault
victims taken
to Portland for
rape exams
WARRENTON — Rox-
anne Williams-Morinville, the
general manager of Warrenton
Kia, heard from a friend that
The Harbor was in need of re-
liable transportation.
In rare cases, children un-
der 15 who are victims of
sexual assault are driven to
Portland for forensic medical
exams because expertise is
lacking at rural hospitals on
the North Coast.
forward with a discounted 2008
Dodge Caravan. “We felt that
it was important that they have
something reliable,” she said.
Pediatric specialists
Rather than make the four-
hour round trip in a police ve-
hicle, The Harbor wanted to
give victims and their families
another option.
Williams-Morinville stepped
Tension exists between so-
cial-service advocates, medical
experts, police and prosecutors
over how best to serve young
victims of sexual assault.
Last summer, The Daily
Astorian reported on the lack
RIQXUVHVFHUWL¿HGWRWUHDWSHGL
atric victims in Clatsop County
and other parts of the state af-
ter a 10-year-old girl was raped
in Astoria. The girl, her moth-
er and a younger sibling were
taken by police to a Portland
hospital for the rape exam.
See ROXANNE, Page 10A
Roxanne Wil-
liams-Morin-
ville, the gen-
eral manager
at Warrenton
Kia, provided
a discounted
minivan to
The Harbor to
help transport
child sexual
assault vic-
tims.
DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily
Astorian