Pirate's Cove

It’s always great when the people who constantly bang the drum about an issue are the worst offenders, is it not? From ‘climate change’ to taking money from Wall Street to dark money to not paying $15 an hour (and failing to pay OT and even the minimum wage) to so much more, and this

(LA Times) When California updated its equal pay law in 2015, there was no shortage of fanfare. Women’s rights groups called it one of the toughest in the country. Gov. Jerry Brown, in a symbolic flourish, signed the new measure at a Richmond park named after feminist icon Rosie the Riveter.

But a state report released last fall underscored how far California has to go before its rhetoric matches reality when it comes to paying state workers. According to its findings, there is a 20.5% disparity in pay between female and male state employees — a wider gap than in the federal civil service and the private sector in California and nationwide.

Got that? Worse. And Government is going to continue to make changes to fix this. Supposedly

As lawmakers plumb deeper into the pay gap debate, the challenge before them becomes more daunting. While the mantra “equal pay for equal work” sounds straightforward, experts say lagging female earnings are rooted in unconscious bias and persistent undervaluing of jobs held by women — phenomena not easily solved by legislation.

So, wait, Democrats are a huge majority in the public sector, and they are sexists? How ’bout them apples! The report states that the pay gap won’t be fixed till, get this, 2044.

Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) has offered one solution: Make sure California’s equal pay laws apply to the public sector. He’s pushing a bill that would make public employers subject to existing law, including a 2015 update that expanded its purview to “substantially similar” work, not just identical jobs.

“If it’s good enough for the private sector, it should also be good enough for the public sector,” Cooper said.

That’s weird. It doesn’t? And here come the excuses

“The issue that presents itself here is not as much one of disparate pay, but an unequal distribution of gender throughout the classification system,” said Joe DeAnda, spokesman for the California Department of Human Resources.

Women tend to work in sectors with lower salary ranges, such as administrative support or social work, while men tend to hold jobs with higher pay — particularly public safety jobs such as California Highway Patrol officer or firefighter. More than 61% of men in state government make more than $70,000, according to the Human Resources Department, while just 39% of women do.

Maia Downs, who works in Monterey Park as a state adoption specialist finding homes for neglected or abused children, said the salary range for her profession, which requires a graduate degree and is dominated by women, is significantly lower than those for jobs predominantly held by men.

“It’s sanctioned discrimination,” said Downs of the low salary ranges for female-dominated positions.

That sounds familiar to the debate, does it not? Firefighters and police officers, male dominated jobs, tend to be more valuable than things like an adoption specialist, because they are rather more dangerous. Women often go into professions which have always had lower pay, and aren’t going to change.

But, hey, California could change this easily. It could pass a law that all jobs should be paid the same in state government based on, say, time on the job. So, a female with a Women’s Studies degree working as a social studies advisor and on the job for 10 years would make the same as a SWAT member on the job for 10 years. Seems fair, right?

Crossed at Right Wing News.