Sparse data on API women and equal pay
By Ji Hyun Lim
An Asian American female engineer is having lunch at work, and one of her male colleagues mentions that he wishes he were being paid more so he could buy a new car. They compare wages and she realizes that despite her master’s degree and seniority at the company, she is being paid less.
That scenario and similar situations are all too common in the American workplace, according to Lynn Hart, a federal investigator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Indeed, most women are concerned about the issue of equal pay. During the 2000 presidential elections, a poll conducted by the Center for Policy Alternatives and Lifetime Television, found that of the 800 women surveyed, 90 percent of Asian Americans, 93 percent of African Americans, 91 percent of Latinos, and 87 percent of whites said that equal pay and benefits for women was a top priority.
As important as this issue appears to be, however, data on API women is still lacking. And what information there is may not be accurate. Alyson Reed, executive director of the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), said statistics on wages and earnings for Asian Americans available from the Census Bureau are negligible.
“[The numbers] the census bureau provides is based on a survey of 50,000 households and they don’t report enough Asian Americans to get statistically significant data that would enable them to compare Asian American men and women in terms of earnings,” Reed said.
Reed also pointed out that the Census Bureau reports household income but not individual income based on gender. A “household” may include multiple wage earners in an extended family living arrangement, a situation more typical in the API community. That skews the statistics, making it seem Asian Americans earn more than they actually do.
“We have shared data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics that show disparities between white women and white men, and Hispanic women and men, and black women and men…[but] we don’t know much about Asian women and men,” Reed said.
She added: “I don’t know how you’re going to address the broad range of health and socio-economic issues confronting the API community if you don’t have any data of what’s happening to them.”
Jin Sook Lee of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) estimates Asian American women earn 80 cents to the dollar made by Asian American men. Meanwhile, Census numbers indicate women of all ethnicities and races on average make 72 cents to the dollar earned by men, according to Lee.
“The bottom line is numbers change,” Lee said. “Regardless of whether [API women] make more than average, they’re still making less than men. You need data to back yourself up to really push for the community to believe in the area of [pay equality].”
On April 3, NCPE held Equal Pay Day to shed light on pay disparities, with some 350 grassroots groups participating on a local level. Workshops showed women how to improve their salary negotiation skills, raised public awareness about the wage gap, and examined solutions. Some groups held lobby days at state capitals to push for anti-discrimination legislation.
Improvements have already been made at the state level. In West Virginia, for example, state legislators appropriated over $1 million for pay equity among state employees. In Maine, the state issued new regulations to enforce pay equity requirements in the private sector beginning in spring 2001. And in Texas, Alaska, New York and California pay equity legislation has passed through at least one chamber of their legislatures.
More work needs to be done, though, especially in the private sector, EEOC investigator Hart said. In the public sector, salaries are public information. In the private sector, on the other hand, such information is considered proprietary. Hart contends that companies routinely exploit women with lower pay as a means to increase profits.
Every employee has a right not to be discriminated against, Hart said. Employees also have protections if they wish to file grievances. It is against the law for any company to retaliate against an employee who files discrimination charges with the EEOC. If a company does retaliate, the EEOC can file a second charge. If a worker is at risk of losing her job, the EEOC can file a temporary restraining order, which requires the company to keep the employee during the course of investigation.
Although the EEOC is available for individual grievances, API women are hesitant to report violations, Hart contends.
“I was raised in mainland Japan and in a lot of Asian cultures, people are not so quick to report what does not seem right,” she said. “You don’t normally speak out like that for fear of losing your job. You might feel weird, impolite, or any number of things.”
For more information, contact: National Committee on Pay Equity 301-277-1033.
Ji Hyun Lim can be reached at jlim@asianweek.com |
