Sears Assails Senate Inaction On Pay Equity Bill
BY THOMAS COGAN

City Councilmember Helen Sears spoke about pay equity for women in a morning press conference in front of City Hall last week, in company with several women's groups, including the New York Women's Agenda, A Better Balance, the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women and the National Organization of Women (NOW). Sears, head of the council Committee on Women's Issues, afterward held a hearing in council chambers. She and the women's groups protested the state senate's unwillingness to deal with the equal pay bill passed by the state Assembly.

Saying that women are 46.3 percent of the workforce, yet on average are paid only 77 percent of what men are paid, City Councilmember Helen Sears told those attending a press conference in front of City Hall in mid-April that she and several women's groups gathered around her were demanding that the state senate in Albany assume some responsibility and pass a pay equity bill that has already been passed by the state Assembly. She was particularly concerned with what she called the plight of women who are head of households, who therefore have no one else to turn to when trying to meet expenses. She was joined not only by the women's groups but also by four male city council representatives, one of whom said it was outrageous that such a gathering was even necessary in 2008, when the justice of the women's cause has long since been obvious.

Women as heads of households, Sears said, would include widows, divorcees and those who have been deserted. All these women must support themselves and any children they have, entirely on their own. She speaks from experience, having been widowed when she had a young daughter. She said she got a job and worked hard until she discovered that men of similar status at her place of work were being paid considerably more than she was. They had company cars, too, while she had to travel in her job without one. Confident she was a valuable employee, she told her boss she would resign if she were not given pay equity. She succeeded, and got a company car, too. Having experience like that, Sears could declare, "Women are honorable, have to raise their families and deserve equality." Matters are even more stressful for black and Latino women, she said, because where white women's comparative pay level is 77 cents to a dollar for men, black women's pay level is 66 cents and Latino women's 60 cents.

Joining Sears after a few minutes was Councilmember Simcha Felder of the 44th district in Brooklyn's Midwood and Borough Park. He was the one who called it outrageous that such a protest had to be staged after what many thought were years of progress. But, another rally speaker asserted, what is called the Fair Pay Act has been stalled in the labor committee of the state senate since 2002, though the Assembly has passed it. When the committee recently got a new chairman, Joseph E. Robach, of the 56th district in Rochester, activists tried to persuade him to hold hearings on the FPA, but now they charge that he has only prolonged inactivity. Felder, who further described pay inequity as "ugly in every way", was joined by Councilmembers David Weprin of the 23rd district (Hollis/Jamaica), who said it "should be a non-issue"; John Liu of the 20th district (Flushing), and Tony Avella of the 19th district (Bayside), who declared: "Equal pay- we don't settle for anything less."