Mayors, Equal Pay and Human Rights

Once again reflecting the influence of local elected officials to influence human rights policy, this week Mayor Anne Parker of Houston, Texas proposed legislation that would adopt a Human Rights Commission for the city.   Under the proposed plan, the city’s inspector general, along with the seven member commission, would review discrimination complaints lodged against city businesses. The ordinance would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations including bars and restaurants.   The legislation would essentially incorporate non-discrimination policies currently in effect with major corporations into local city businesses.  Mayor Parker noted that Houston was the only major U.S. city “without civil rights protections for its residents” noting that 185 cities and counties across the country have passed anti-discrimination legislation.  I cannot help but wonder about the ripple effects of Salt Lake City’s Mayor Becker’s visit to Geneva as part of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. review of U.S. compliance with the ICCPR.  (Martha Davis blogged about the Mayor’s appearance.)  Often we are most influenced by our peers and it is seems that local officials are those most interested in promoting human rights initiatives.  Language changes promote cultural shifts.  If local officials are discussing discrimination with human rights language then citizens will become comfortable with the terminology, creating an opening for the discussion of human rights principles and goals to a broader audience.  Mayor Parker gave several examples of Houston’s need for a human rights commission.  Among those examples was that an older woman should not be denied a job on a city contract.  While one critic of the proposed commission claimed that there are sufficient state and federal laws in place to protect against discrimination, apparently that is not the case.  The US Congress will consider the Paycheck Fairness Act  as early as next Tuesday.   If you are born a white women in the United States you earn 77% less than men. If you are an African American woman you are earning 64% of what white men earn.  According to Mom’s Rising, a Columbia University study found that with equal resumes and job experiences, mothers were offered $11,000 lower starting salaries than non-mothers. (Fathers, on the other hand, were offered $6,000 more in starting salaries than non-fathers.) When Congress passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963,  women earned 59 cents for each dollar earned by a man.  Over the past fifty years we have closed the pay differential by only 18 cents.  The consequences of unequal pay are obvious.  Women are poorer in retirement and have fewer resources for supporting their families.   The ability of women to extract themselves from poverty is delayed if not defeated by unequal and inadequate pay.  Hopefully Congress will take a lead from local politicians and recognize the injustice of unequal pay as a human rights violation.