Session: State Capitol, Room 508 Juneau, AK 99801-1182 Phone: (907) 465-3892 Fax: (907) 465-6595 Interim: 716 W 4th Avenue, Suite 400 Anchorage, AK 99501-2133 Phone: (907) 269-0234 Fax: (907) 269-0238

Women Should Get Equal Pay

(JUNEAU) -The Alaska Senate passed legislation today authorizing an investigation to determine if female employees of the State of Alaska receive unfairly low wages compared to their male counterparts.

"If two workers perform the same or similar jobs, it is illegal under federal law to pay them different wages based solely on their sex," said Donley. "Although the State of Alaska has never done a study of pay equity, there is research showing existing wage disparities between the sexes in our state government. We know that Alaska women working for the state are being paid less than their male counterparts."

Senate Bill 65, sponsored by Sen. Dave Donley (R-Anchorage) and Sen. Robin Taylor (R-Wrangell), addresses this inequity, providing a mechanism to bring the state into compliance with federal law, and putting an end to wage-based sex discrimination in state employment. The bill requires the Department of Administration to identify instances in which the state is illegally paying women less than men. When these disparities in pay are identified, the state will be able to develop phased strategies to eliminate sex discrimination.

"Paying women and men equally for equal work is the legal thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, and it's the right thing to do," said Donley.

Donley has previously introduced legislation on this subject and hopes this proposal will meet with success.

SB 65 passed the Senate 17-1 and now moves to the House for consideration.

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Attachments:

• Sponsor Statement for SB 65
  
• Print Friendly Version
  requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - 1 page(s) - 100 K

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