TESTIMONY OF THE SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION AFL-CIO BEFORE THE HONORABLE MARY ROSE OAKAR CHAIR SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMPENSATION AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89-00066R000100100018-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: April 3, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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I
Committee on Political Education
Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC
2020 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006
John J. Sweeney, International President
Richard W. Cordtz, International Secretary-Treasurer
Richard E. Murphy, COPE and Legislative Director
[phone]
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION
AFL-CIO
THE HONORABLE MARY ROSE OAKAR
CHAIR
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMPENSATION
AND EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
"Pay Equity"
April 3, 1984
Submitted By:
John J. Sweeney
International President
Service Employees International Union
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STATEMENT OF JOHN J. SWEENEY, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, AFL-CIO
I am John J. Sweeney, President of the Service Employees
International Union, AFL-CIO.
On behalf of the 830,000 members of SEIU, I want to thank
Congresswoman Oakar for inviting us here today to share some
recent developments in the struggle for pay equity in which
my union is an active force. And I welcome the chance to
reaffirm SEIU's commitment to eliminating sex-based wage
discrimination and ensuring that this country's women workers
receive equitable pay for the jobs they perform.
SEIU had the pleasure of testifying before Congresswoman
Oakar and her colleagues, Congresswomen Schroeder and Ferraro,
during the congressional hearings on pay equity in September,
1982. Those were historic hearings and marked the beginning of
a flurry of activity on the issue in the workplace, in state
legislatures and in the media.
We hope today's forum will spur attention and action on
the pay equity issue, which we believe is the single most
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important economic issue for women workers in this country.
When I testified a year and a half ago, I stated that SEIU
saw the battle for pay equity as one more step in the long
history of workers fighting for wage justice. I am sure, Ms.
Oakar, that you remember the giant postcards SEIU sent to
members of Congress publicizing those 1982 hearings which
featured dramatic pictures of some of those struggles for
example--the child labor law, which businesses in Massachusetts
denounced in 1924 as "a calamity to our nation."
In 1984, we hear the same indictments of pay equity not
just from U.S. business leaders--which we in the labor movement
have come to expect--but from officials within our government
entrusted with enforcing the laws which prohibit sex-based wage
discrimination.
For SEIU, pay equity is a critical necessity affecting
virtually all of our members because they work in the service
sector, which has long profitted from historic wage
discrimination against women. The service industries employ
more than four out of every five women employed.
Half of our union membership is women working in
healthcare, clerical jobs, building maintenance, and public
employment. Exploitation of women means depressed wages for all
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of us in SEIU, so we are particularly sensitive to distortions
perpetrated by both employers and the Reagan administration.
When I last testified before you on this issue, women were
earning 59 cents for every $1.00 earned by men working full
time, year round jobs. Today, that figure has increased to 61
cents--a tiny dent in that giant bulwark of wage discrimination.
SEIU has participated on a number of union-management committees
conducting job evaluation studies and we have found over and
over again that the jobs held predominately by women are paid
substantially less than the jobs held predominately by men.
Also, we've found that compensation has nothing to do with the
skill, effort, responsibility, or working conditions of the job.
The reason for this inequity is simply historic, ingrained sex
discrimination.
And yet I see a promise of more equitable times ahead
because of.the progress made by unions at the bargaining table
and in the legislatures on pay equity.
Collective bargaining. Legislative and political
activity. Organizing. Career Development and Education. These
are the necessary components of an effective plan to institute
pay equity for all workers in the public and private sector.
Unions have exercised tremendous leadership on this issue
but efforts by unions must be supported by strong laws which are
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enforced when employers fail to voluntarily comply with the
The Service Employees International Union has continued
to use a variety of approaches to achieve pay equity.
First, I'd like to address collective bargaining, our most
effective and widespread activity. SEIU uses a number of
bargaining techniques aimed at closing the wage gap between jobs
held predominately by men and jobs held predominately by women.
Specifying a flat dollar increase rather than an across
the board percentage increase is one such technique. In
preparing for negotiations with the woodland Hills School
District, SEIU Local 585, Pittsburgh, which represents the
classified employees, analyzed wages and found great inequities
for women employees.
Local 585 negotiated a 75-cent-an-hour raise for each of
the first two years, a dollar per-hour wage increase for the
third year, and whatever money it takes to bring workers up to
scale in the fourth year. For some of the employees, this means
a raise of more than $2.00 per hour. The increase brought the
most senior women up to the earnings level of the men and
equalized the wage rates within each job.
Another technique used successfully by Local 585 was
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retitling several job classifications to correct inequities--
teacher aides became instructional assistants, and library
clerks became library assistants--with salaries commensurate
with skills.
Carefully conducted job evaluation studies have been a
tool in achieving pay equity. SEIU has demanded and on
agreement to full union participation in job evaluation studies
which have documented wage inequities and led to equity
adjustments. SEIU has been careful in requiring that the results
of any such studies be the subject of collective bargaining.
Pay equity need not be a controversial issue when
employers are willing to accept their social and economic
responsibilities.
SEIU Local 614, the NAPA Association of Public Emplo"ees,
negotiated .a comparable worth committee and conducted a study
without the assistance of a consultant. The Vacaville School
District Board of Education accepted the findings of the report
and agreed to finance $251,000 in equity adjustments for some
200 women workers. These salary increases were separate from the
recently negotiated 1983-84 increases of 7 percent.
In the City of Berkeley, California, SEIU Local 390/400
recently conducted a pay equity study that led to agreement by
the city to $1.1 million in raises over the next two and a half
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years for 140 clerical workers.
These examples are just a capsule version of our
bargaining activity and our bargaining tactics on this issue.
SEIU has also demanded and won upgraded entry level wages; the
elimination of sex-biased job titles; the elimination of the
employer practice of changing wage rate criteria from job to job
or expanding job duties without compensation; prohibitions
against sex-biased assignment of jobs or arbitrary entry
barriers which discriminate against any one class of workers,
and the reform of job reclassification procedures.
Education and career development are other activities
essential for promoting pay equity.
Our Lifelong Education and Development Program (LEAD) is a
unique program which sets up career ladders with a combination
of on-the-job raining and in-school training for workers. The
LEAD program breaks down the barriers which inhibit women's
abilities to advance and earn more pay.
Education on the pay equity issue is crucial to its
acceptance by our membership and the general public. Without
unity in our goals, we cannot achieve pay equity--which is just
what employers want. SEIU has undertaken educational sessions
aimed at clearing up the misconceptions male workers harbor
about the issue and demonstrating that pay equity is simple
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justice which will benefit all workers.
Yet bargaining and educational activities are often not
enough, because employers are all too willing to ignore their
social responsiblity and force workers to resort to the courts
and outright protest to win their rights.
Thus, SEIU has turned to the statehouses on pay equity
issues. Some twelve states have equal pay laws which authorize
equal pay for jobs of comparable worth. Seventeen states have
completed or are in the process of doing pay equity job
evaluation studies thanks to the lobbying on the part of unions.
In the state of Oregon, SEIU's Local 503, the Oregon
Public Employees Union, represents 18,000 state workers and has
addressed the pay equity issue on two fronts. The union is
involved in a coalition active in a discrimination suit against
the Oregon,State System of Higher Education. In this class
action suit, the plaintiffs are women professors alleging
discrimination in hiring, promotion and pay.
On the other front, Local 503 successfully lobbied the
state legislature to pass a bill authorizing a $355,000
reclassification study and establishing a Comparable Worth Task
Force to undertake the study. A Local 503 staffperson chairs
this committee.
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These SEIU Oregon members have a long history of dealing
with the pay equity issue. It negotiated a number of equity
provisions for its state clerical units, including a flat dollar
increase which gave the average clerical worker a greater
increase than other state workers; a new classification for word
processors with a 10 percent increase; and classifications for
data entry operators and telephone operators with 5 percent
increases.
Ohio Governor Richard Celeste issued an executive order
which requires a pay equity job evaluation study of Ohio's civil
service system as a result of lobbying by 9to5, the National
Association of Office Workers, who presented him with a 23,000-
signature petition. 9to5 has joined with SEIU to form a unique
organizing effort, District 925, aimed at offering the benefits
of trade unionism to the nearly 20 million unorganized office
workers in this country.
SEIU local unions in Minnesota were active in the drive
which resulted in the Minnesota State Employees Compensation
Statute, a model law with stated definitions of "reasonable
relationships" between salaries of different groups.
Clearly, women workers need power and a voice to overcome
historical discrimination. More and more, women are turning to
unions to organize and work collectively.
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Organizing women workers continues to be a high priority
for SEIU--and an activity directly related to pay equity since
organized women workers earn a full 30 percent more than
unorganized women.
In our state and local government contracts, women are
earning 71 cents for every dollar earned by a man--still a gap
but evidence that unionization is narrowing the gap.
And the federal government must work to narrow the wage
gap for federal workers, as a policy matter and as a model
employer. Historically, the federal government led the way in
the hiring of women, but unfortunately has also led the way in
the intentional payment of discriminatory wages. Realizing the
example it sets for the rest of the nation, the federal
government must provide leadership on this issue.
SEIU firmly believes that unity is strength. A strong
organization can bargain better contracts, be a dynamic
political force, and better serve the diverse needs of its
members. And in every instance, united union action has yielded
achievements in pay equity and in eliminating discrimination of
any kind in the workplace.
Since our last appearance before you, Ms. Oakar, SEIU has
affiliated two large independent associations representing
thousands of women workers. The National Association of
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Government Employees (NAGE) who represent some 80,000 federal
and public serviceworkers. Ms. Cynthia Denton, NAGE's Chief
Counsel, will testify tomorrow on the actions they have taken to
fight for equity for 12,000 state clerical workers in
Massachusetts. The other new affiliate is the California State
Employees Association (CSEA) which represents some 100,000 state
workers and is likewise active in the pay equity movement.
The approaches that SEIU takes to promote pay equity that
I have described--collective bargaining, career development and
education, legislative and political activty, and organizing--
cannot flourish and cannot end discrimination without the
cooperation of the government and enforcement of the laws
designed to end sex-based wage discrimination.
In my testimony before you in 1982, I said that I hoped
those hearings would mark the beginning of Congressional and
federal leadership and concern, and the encouragement and
.
enforcement of national laws to assist those fighting to make
pay equity a reality for all workers, regardless of race, sex,
or national origin.
While there are those in the Congress who take the issue
seriously and give it a high priority like you, Ms. Oakar, I
cannot say the same for officials in the administration and the
agencies charged with the responsibility of enforcing and
administering those policies which ensure economic equity and
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Those of us who care about workers have been appalled by
the activities of the President, the Justice Department, the
EEOC and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The recent hearings on pay equity before the Subcommittee
on Manpower and Housing of the Committee on Government
Operations, chaired by Barney Frank, documented the utter
disregard of the EEOC and other executive branch agencies for
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other laws and executive
orders which protect the civil rights of working people.
The testimony of the National Committee on Pay Equity
February 29 of this year revealed that some 269 cases alleging
wage discrimination are currently languishing at the EEOC
headquarters.
.
The EEOC defends its lack of investigation of these cases
by claiming it hasn't developed "policy" on comparable worth
cases. They have ignored their own 1981 90-day notice policy to
provide interim guidance to field officers in processing Title
VII and Equal Pay Act claims of sex-based wage discrimination.
We find little evidence that the EEOC has taken any positive
action since 1981.
Tomorrow, our affiliate NAGE will describe the
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difficulties and frustrations involved in dealing with the EEOC
on sex-based wage discrimination complaints. Since 1981, NAGE
has been trying to resolve a charge of sex discrimination on
behalf of 12,000 state clerical workers. NAGE charges that the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, since at least 1948, has created
and maintained a classification and salary system which has
discriminatorily compensated certain positions because they have
become identified as "female" jobs.
That wage discrimination is illegal could not be clearer.
Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits wage
discrimination against women. In that law, Congress made it
clear that it is illegal for an employer to base wages on the
sex of the job holder where job require comparable skill,
effort and responsibility. In 1981, The United States Supreme
Court upheld the law in its decision, Gunther v. County of
Washington.
The behavior of the EEOC, the Justice Department, the
Department of Labor and the Office of Personnel Management is
not suprising when one considers the person at the top and the
tone that he sets for women's issues and civil rights.
However President Reagan and his appointees might feel,
they cannot ignore the law of the land. It is thus the
responsibility of Congress to provide strict oversight of these
agencies to ensure enforcement of these laws in both the private
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The Pay Equity Act of 1984 (HR 5092) and the Federal Pay
Equity Act of 1984 (HR 4599) require action-oriented reports
from federal agencies that would reaffirm the federal
government's responsibility to enforce pay equity laws,
encourage employers to comply with those laws, and bring federal
wage setting practices into compliance with existing law.
The educational and informational program for the EEOC
called for in the bill will be helpful to workers, and to both
public and private employers.
We strongly endorse these bills and support the efforts of
Congresswoman Oakar and her colleagues to make those agencies
accountable. Anything short of total dedication on the part of
those agencies to the anti-discrimination laws of this country
will spell.disaster for millions of low-wage and women workers.
The pay equity issue must be addressed on many fronts. The
measures called for to make federal agencies more accountable
are much needed steps in that process. SEIU looks forward to
working with Congresswoman Oakar on this issue, as our union
continues to work on other fronts--in unorganized workplaces, at
the bargaining table, in the statehouses and in coalitions with
labor and women's groups--to achieve economic justice for all
American workers.
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