Category: Uncategorized

State scientists deserve pay equity

With a budget surplus nearing $100 billion, it’s time for Governor Newsom and the California State Legislature to address demands for pay equity from state scientists whose work is undervalued and underpaid.

State scientists – more than half are women – often do similar work as state engineers, 78% of whom are men.

We count on California’s “citizen scientists” to protect our communities from toxic pollution, combat climate change, preserve wetlands, and identify safe consumer products.

State scientists working full-time, however, earn on average 27% less than state engineers – a difference of over $30,000 annually.

That’s not pocket change – it’s enough to pay rent or a mortgage for an entire year.

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Sacramento Voters Don’t Think Father Knows Best

Dan Walters November 9 column in the Sacramento Bee recycled timeworn arguments in defense of Measure A, the City of Sacramento’s “strong mayor” proposal defeated on November 3.

Sacramento, he wrote, is like a “gangly adolescent” not “willing to grow up,” not mature enough to adopt “a big city governance structure.”

Really? I see it differently: One of the state’s most politically sophisticated communities – more policy wonks per precinct than most municipalities – resoundingly rejected a flawed proposal that doesn’t fit their values and vision for Sacramento.

It’s not that Sacramentans don’t “get it,” that they’re not able to understand what civic sophistication really means.

Quite the opposite. The real problem is that Sacramento voters aren’t being heard by a paternalistic political elite – a small group of leaders who assume they know what’s best.

The “strong mayor” proposal was poorly timed and marketed with brash manipulation.

For many of us involved in City politics (but not part of the Mayor’s inner circle), Measure A came out of nowhere, and was strong-armed through City Council in a matter of weeks.

There were no neighborhood-based, public hearings and scant opportunity to vet a complicated proposal that would have fundamentally restructured city government.

At the two Council meetings where Measure A was deliberated, dozens of community leaders implored Councilmembers not to push forward with a city charter amendment right before “the election of our lifetimes” and in the middle of a pandemic, when people are struggling to find or keep jobs, pay rent, and quite literally, stay alive.

The appeals made no difference: Business support was already lined up, and Mayor Steinberg, Measure A’s most visible advocate, moved ahead and spent over a million dollars to promote Measure A.

You read that right: over a million dollars.

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An Opportunity in this COVID-19 Crisis: Cue Up Research on Pay Equity

California’s state budget is tanking – fewer revenues due to reduced income and sales taxes and greater expenditures due to unemployment pay-outs and other costs to deal with COVID-19.

To address the shortfall, union leaders are in final-stage negotiations with the Administration and State Legislature to determine if state worker salaries might be reduced – through pay cuts or furloughs.

Ironically, that puts union leaders – and especially SEIU 1000 President Yvonne Walker, due to the size and diversity of her membership – in a strategic position to make sure state worker pay equity is front and center when the state’s finances rebound.

The way to do this is to cue up research that offers a more precise picture of where gender pay gaps exist.

I recently reviewed (with valuable input from colleagues) research on “women’s earnings” from the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR). The report released this year – analyzing 2016 data – was a considerable step up from previous publications.  Continue reading “An Opportunity in this COVID-19 Crisis: Cue Up Research on Pay Equity”