What is Pay Equity?
Pay Equity is a means of eliminating sex and race discrimination in the wage-setting system. Many women and people of color are still segregated into a small number of jobs such as clerical, service workers, nurses, and teachers. These jobs have historically been undervalued and continue to be underpaid to a large extent because of the gender and race of the people who hold them. Pay equity means that the criteria employers use to set wages must be sex - and race - neutral.

According the 2000 Census the Median Annual Earnings of Year-Round, Full-Time Workers:
All Men $37,339 (100%) All Women $27,355 (73%)

Despite the 1963 Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1964, which both prohibit wage discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin, there is still a wage gap. Women, on average, earn 73 cents for every dollar a man earns.

The Wage gap is even greater for women of color:
Of full-time workers, black women's median weekly earnings ($429) were only 64% of the earnings of white men ($669) in the year 2000.
According to the Census Bureau, in 2000, the median full-time earnings for Hispanic women were $20,527 only 52% of the median earnings of white men ($37,339).

Information from the National Committee on Pay Equity www.pay-equity.org/

Resources: New Mexico

To report a Pay Equity violation call the New Mexico Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at (505) 248-5201 or visit the national webpage http://www.eeoc.gov/

New Mexico Business and Professional Women http://www.highfiber.com/~bpwnm/BPWfacts.htm

WESST Corp (Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team) is a non-profit business assistance organization whose mission is to facilitate the startup and growth of small business throughout the state of New Mexico. For more information or to register for classes on Starting Your Business, Effective Strategies for Business Owners, and Business Development Classes, call (505) 241-4753.

Resources: National

National Committee on Pay Equity http://www.pay-equity.org/

National Women’s Law Center http://www.nwlc.org/

Institue for Women's Policy Research http://www.iwpr.org/