When will women achieve wage parity?

AAUW (American Association of University Women) has just released the gender pay gap data for Hawaii and the U.S., confirming what we always suspected. Despite oft-expressed American desires for fairness in employment practices, this nation has underpaid working women for decades. AAUW forecasts that women will not achieve parity with men until 2119, or just over 100 years from now.

As bleak as the outlook appears, Hawaii seems superficially better than other states in terms of the gender pay gap.

Hawaii ranks 10th out of all states and the District of Columbia. This means that only eight states and D.C. are ahead of us in terms of the gender gap. Initially, these numbers seem encouraging, but further scrutiny of the data shows why women and families struggle economically here.

The AAUW data show that Hawaii’s Congressional District 1 (urban Honolulu and suburbs) had an earnings ratio of 82.5 percent (i.e., women made 82.5 percent of men’s median, annual earnings) and women in Congressional District 2 took home 87.1 percent of men’s earnings.

Initially, it appears that District 2 women are doing better, but a closer examination shows that women in District 2 earned $40,060 per year, while in District 1, they took home $42,558 annually. The District 2 median annual earnings for men were lower than those of District 1 resident men, making the gender wage gap appear better.

Since the wage gap is based on a comparison with men’s salaries, in order to understand the situation of women here, we need to focus on how men’s median salaries compare across the U.S. In this regard, Hawaii is ranked 29th in the nation with regard to the median annual earnings of full-time, year-round male workers. Generally, this indicates that Hawaii male employees receive lower salaries than their counterparts in the majority of other states, and women in Hawaii are receiving even less than men here.

What is not shown in these data are the costs of living in Hawaii, which are dramatically higher than many other areas of the nation. When women suffer lack of wage parity, so do their families.

People in Hawaii are struggling with many aspects of local living, such as expensive housing, food, and child care costs. We have all seen family members and friends move to the mainland to escape these horrendous expenditures. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more of them could afford to stay? Perhaps, if women were paid a fair amount, this might happen for some of our families.

In Hawaii, we do have the option of advancing pay equity at the state level. We encourage everyone to pay attention when the state Legislature convenes in January.

For the past several years, paycheck fairness and salary transparency bills have appeared before the Legislature, and these bills have all floundered. A simple salary transparency bill allows people to learn what they should be paid for the work they do, and promotes fairness in the workplace.

Another easy fix would be to prevent employers from requesting data about how much was earned in a previous job, when people are applying for new positions.

When women are experiencing lower pay because of gender bias, if they disclose this to a new employer, it often means that the gender penalty follows them to the new place of employment.

Let’s changes this situation, with these and other fixes in employment law. Now is the time for concerned residents to encourage their elected officials to move a paycheck fairness, or salary transparency bill into law, so women in Hawaii don’t have to wait until 2119 to achieve gender equity in their paychecks.

Dr. Susan J. Wurtzburg is policy chairwoman of AAUW-HI, and Amy Monk is a commissioner with the Hawaii State Commission of the Status of Women.