Teachers v. You: A Case to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap
They have been determined — organizing, marching, chanting, and taking over capitol buildings. They are teachers who are fed up with low pay and insufficient resources to do their jobs. One other descriptor leaps out of the images from Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. They are largely women.
When governments across the United States underpay teachers, they contribute to the gender pay gap which exists between and within professions. Sadly, teachers are not the only ones. Government plays a big role in other professions that underpay women. During this era in which many Americans are picking up protest signs, why not consider a general women’s movement focused on government pay?
Education as “Women’s Work”
We all love the fellas. They’re important to their students, add a valuable form of diversity to the classroom, and have recently been marching alongside their sisters. But it’s hard to ignore that the teacher pay story is largely about women. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are:
· 79 percent of elementary school teachers
· 59 percent of secondary school teachers
· 98 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers
· 89 percent of teacher assistants
· 94 percent of childcare workers
Our society’s treatment of educators is, in part, a reflection of how it values women. Today, teachers say they start their careers being paid less than other college graduates. As they mature, the pay gap between them and other professionals grows. Researchers back-up their claims, demonstrating just how little the nation values women’s work.
Other Types of Women’s Work
Government is involved in other types of women’s work.
Social services are provided by various public and private agencies supported by government funds. Workers in many of these sectors tend to be women . . . women who are underpaid.
Veteran’s health, Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act make the federal government a big player in the healthcare space. Big money means big influence. But here too are a number of women-dominated professions defined by low pay.
· 83 percent of social workers
· 75 percent of human service assistants
· 72 percent of counselors
· 90 percent of registered nurses
· 89 percent of nursing, psychiatric, and home health aids
Women in these professions have something in common — the need to raise their estimated value in the eyes of government (and government influenced) employers.
When “We the People” Don’t Pay Enough
We the people of the United States are the ones underpaying women workers. As voters, we can demand that our elected representatives change the status quo.
Governments can directly raise salaries. They can incentivize others to do so. Using the power of the purse, they can withhold funds from lower-level governments and private actors who refuse to pay women what they’re worth.
Women’s pay must be a priority for legislators — the people who work for us all.
Welfare Queens
Within the earlier mentioned professions, median wages range from $482 to $1,150 per week. Many workers’ earnings fall below the median. And these numbers are silent to certain hardships. For instance, home health aids may have weeks when they experience a shortage of available shifts. Teachers may live in high-cost regions, requiring them to spend 50 percent of their income on rent.
Coming up short on monthly expenses is easy to do — especially for mothers raising children on their own. Some of these workers turn to government programs for help. For example, one study found that nearly half of all childcare workers and home health aids rely on some form of government assistance.
Today adults who participate in programs like SNAP, Housing Choice Vouchers (aka Section 8), and Medicaid are demonized by conservatives as being lazy and unwilling to work. In a previous era, they would have been called “welfare queens”. In reality, most working-age adults in these programs are workers — some of whom are employed by the government or government-adjacent industries.
The Paul Ryan’s of the world help ensure that women workers have low pay and then turn around and bully them for needing public assistance.
Privatizing Pay
Speaking of conservatives, many also push to privatize government programs and services. This poses a threat to women workers and efforts to close the gender pay gap. Private businesses seek profits. They are unlikely to work with the same economies of scale as governments. And they may be more vulnerable during economic downturns and recessions. Such factors are likely to reduce pay and job security.
In the education world, private school teachers make 21 percent less than their public school counterparts. Similar disparities may arise in other sectors that privatize.
More
In recent weeks, red state teachers have captured national attention. They have secured long overdue raises and new resources for classrooms. But given the importance of their work and history of low pay, they deserve even more. Women in healthcare and social services professions tied to government also deserve more.
“More” includes bigger salaries but also not being 1) demeaned for needing public assistance or 2) harmed by ill-advised policy shifts.
While women workers take up signs and creative protest chants, “we the people” must accept our role in the current crisis. After all, our votes have the power to narrow the gender pay gap.
