Senior Policy Analyst Amanda Posson spoke with the Dallas Morning News about new report findings that place Frisco, Plano and McKinney in the top 10 cities with the largest gender pay gaps.
Read an excerpt below:
Tuesday marks Equal Pay Day, an awareness event coined by the National Committee on Pay Equity in the 1960s to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. To earn what men did in 2023, women across the country would have to work from January 1, 2023 until March 12, 2024.
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The reality of such a significant pay gap is harmful to women and mothers across Dallas-Fort Worth, said Amanda Posson, a senior policy analyst at Every Texan, a public policy nonprofit. The managerial sector, which Dallas-Fort Worth has dense pockets of, faces a pretty stark pay gap, Posson said.
The gender wage gap has closed more among workers without a four-year college degree than among those with a bachelor’s degree or more education, according to Pew Research Center. The pay gap widens, however, as women age, Posson said.
Women over 34, whether they have children or not, are penalized for motherhood whereas men receive a premium for fatherhood, Posson said.
“This has to do with societal factors and gender discrimination norms that women aren’t going to be as productive in the workplace because they’re parents now,” Posson said.
Giving mothers and fathers equal access to paid leave policies will mitigate some of the harm that mothers face in the workforce around pay inequity, Posson said.