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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2014)
Opinion Unequal Pay for Equal Work “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor J ERRY F OSTER Advertising Manager L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., W hen John and Ann start- ed working on Jan. 1, 2013, John had an immediate advantage. Because women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, it took Ann until last Friday [April 11, 2014] to earn the same amount of money that John earned in the calendar year of 2013. The issue of unequal pay is so important that President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act 50 years ago. While we have come a long way, baby, the pay gap has remained stubborn. This is why President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act as soon as he assumed office. This year, to commemorate National Equal Pay Day (that’s the day Ann finally earns as much as John), the president signed an Executive Order protecting work- ers from retaliation when they speak of unequal pay in the work- place (one of the ways employers can maintain unequal pay is to make discussing pay grounds for firing). The president, through the Secretary of Labor, is also requir- ing federal contractors to provide data on pay, race, and gender to ensure that employers are fairly paid. Furthermore, the Senate is considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, which may pass the Senate, but not the House of Representa- tives. We know all about John and Ann, but what about Tamika? If women earn 77 percent of what men earn, what about African American women? Women surely have come a long way, but some B ENNETT C OLLEGE Julianne Malveaux are moving far more slowly than others. How many African Ameri- can women are there in the Senate? Among Fortune 500 lead- ers? In other positions of power? What about pay? African Ameri- can women earn about three quarters of what other women earn, meaning that if it takes Ann until April 11 to catch up with largely ignored. It wouldn’t take much for the president, or some of those femi- nist groups who support paycheck fairness to throw in a line or two about African American women. Nor would it hurt African Ameri- can organizations, especially those who serve Black women, to point out this injustice. Are African American women invisi- ble? Don’t we count? African American women raise the major- ity of our children, and shoulder many of the challenges in the African American community. Ignoring us in a con- versation about unequal pay simply marginalizes our experi- ences and us. African American women earn about three quarters of what other women earn John, It will take Tamika until about June 1 – about another six weeks – to catch up. Tamika earns in 18 months what John earns in 12 months. Even African American women with the highest levels of educa- tion experience these differences. White men with a postgraduate degree earn a median salary of $1,666 a week African American women earn a median salary of $1,000 during the same time peri- od. For all the talk of pay equity and paycheck fairness, the status of African American women is The focus on “overall” data is yet another way of marginalizing not only African American women, but other people of color well. Reporting aggregate data gives some notion of economic progress. Reporting specific data about African American women and men makes it clear, for exam- ple, that African Americans experience depression-level unemployment rates. I was delighted when President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Act, and I have been privileged to hear Ledbetter speak on more than one occasion. She is an amazing woman with a talent for “breaking it down.” When she learned that men doing the same job she did earned more money, she cried “foul” but the law said it was “too late” for her to complain. In her inimitable way, she said that gro- cers did not charge her less money because she was female, nor did doctors, or anyone else. She said that higher-paid men didn’t have to make uncomfortable choices about which child would get new shoes or clothes. African American women can tell the same story as Lily Ledbet- ter. Indeed, the gaps African American women are likely to be more severe than the ones Lily Ledbetter faced. The pay gap for African Americans is larger and too many live in food deserts where the cost of food is higher even as the quality is lower. When African American women are marginalized, so are our girls. They are left with the mistaken impression that we have not fought for our rights. We’ve been fighting and fighting, but some- how the story of a sister struggling is too unremarkable to be noted by the media. Race and gender continue to shape the opportunities that African American women have, and race and gender continue to marginalize us Black women. When do African Ameri- can women have equal visibility in the policy and imagery arena? When we demand it and when we stop applauding our own margin- alization. 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2014 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Irresponsibility is Hallmark of Ryan Budget I n the same week that we marked the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and learned that 7.1 million Americans had enrolled in the Affordable Care Act, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan introduced a draconian 2015 budget plan that increases military spending through 2024 by $483 billion – to pre-sequester levels – yet cuts non-defense spending by $791 bil- lion. This illogical plan proposes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, end Medicare as we know it, and slash critical safety-net programs, including the Supplemental Nutri- tion Assistance Program (or SNAP – formerly food stamps), Head Start and Pell Grants. It is ironic that a plan called the “Path to Prosperity” is nothing more than a path to political grandstanding and partisanship that has no place among constructive efforts focused on real prosperity for all Americans, not a select few. At a time when Americans are looking to Washington for solu- tions to the problems of income inequality and the ever-increasing Great Divide, the Ryan budget goes in the opposite direction. Rather than closing the gaps, it exacerbates the problems by raising taxes an average of $2,000 for middle-class families with children, according to the Office of Management and Budg- Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner April 16, 2014 T O B E E QUAL Marc Morial et, while giving the wealthiest tax- payers a break by lowering their taxes from 39.6 percent to 25 per- cent. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that the “prosperi- ty proposal” would result in the loss of 3 million jobs over the next couple of years, thereby reversing burdens seniors, the disabled, and children – while cutting taxes for the rich. “Tax cuts for people who don’t need them and eco- nomic insecurity for everyone else is grossly irresponsible budg- et and economic policy,” he added. The Center for American Progress called Ryan’s plan “the same conservative, top-down poli- cies that have failed the nation’s middle and working-class fami- lies, seniors, and the economy,” while the New York Times called it “Destructive to the country’s future.” Thankfully, spending for the It is ironic that a plan called the ‘Path to Prosperity’ is nothing more than a path to political grandstanding the gradual upward trend in job creation. In short, the Ryan budg- et, while not surprising in its familiar ideology or fanciful push towards austerity, represents the height of irresponsibility and is a blueprint for disaster for millions of hard-working Americans. It has immediately, and rightfully, drawn widespread condemnation. Ethan Pollack, Senior Policy Analyst with the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute con- cluded that much like the budget Ryan proposed last year, this one next two years was set by the budget agreement passed in the Senate and the House and signed by President Obama in December 2013. So it is unlikely that the Ryan budget will become law in the short-term or is for anything more than show. Nonetheless, it is a dangerous “vision” for our nation. The National Urban League strongly rejects this budg- et because of its likely destructive impact on employment, the econo- my and poverty. We urge Paul Ryan and his colleagues to drop this plan and get serious about developing a responsible budget that does not depend on hurting millions of working and middle- class Americans to benefit the richest few. I would expect that Rep. Ryan would be more conscious of the critical need to accomplish this, especially as this year’s State of Black America report and the new Black-White Metropolitan Equali- ty Index™ finds that three of the five least equal cities in America for unemployment and two of the five least equal cities for income are in his home state of Wiscon- sin. With an equality index of 23.8 percent (on a 100-point scale), Madison ranked at the bot- tom for Black-White unemployment (18.5 percent vs. 4.4 percent). With an equality index of 40.3 percent, Minneapo- lis ranked at the bottom for Black-White median household income ($28,784 vs. $71,376). The night before Dr. King’s April 4, 1968 assassination, he said: “The question is not, if I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me? The question is, if I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?…Let us move on in these powerful days, these days of chal- lenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportu- nity to make America a better nation.”
