Hi NAEYC Members,
I'm sharing this article that a colleague shared with me. This article makes the distinction between "equal pay" and "pay equity." Here's an excerpt:
Unlike “equal pay” — the concept most often used to address gender pay disparities in the United States — the concept of “pay equity” doesn’t just demand equal pay for women doing the same work as men, in the same positions. Such efforts, while worthwhile, ignore the role of occupational segregation in keeping women’s pay down: There are some jobs done mostly by women and others that are still largely the province of men. The latter are typically better paid.
But if the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is that what has traditionally been women’s work — caring, cleaning, the provision of food — can no longer be taken for granted. “It’s not the bankers and the hedge fund managers and the highest paid people” upon whose services we’ve come to rely, said Amy Ross, former national organizer for New Zealand’s Public Service Association union. “It’s our supermarket workers, it’s our cleaners, it’s our nurses — and they’re all women!”
I think we can add early childhood professionals to that last sentence!
You can access the full article here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/opinion/sunday/women-pay-gender-gap.html?referringSource=articleShare------------------------------
Tonya Satchell
Johns Hopkins University School of Education IDEALS Institute
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