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Home My WebLink About04-23-24 Public Comment - J. Strout - on Equal Pay 2024 City Report and Role of City for CEDAW ResolutionFrom:Jan Strout To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment on Equal Pay 2024 City Report and Role of City for CEDAW Resolution Date:Tuesday, April 23, 2024 11:55:59 AM Attachments:2022 BZN Chronicle pay equity article and CEDAW organizing.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear Mayor and City Commissioners, I am writing as a co-leader of the Bozeman City for CEDAW Task Force and I live in NW Bozeman. We are writing to thank Mayor Cunningham for his Proclamation to commemorate our Bozeman City for CEDAWResolution (S. 5384) adopted unanimously over 2 years ago by the City Commission on APRIL 5, 2022. His Proclamation demonstrated an understanding about the comprehensive and intersectional purpose of CEDAW’s human rights Resolution to advance the status of women andgirls in all our diversity. Within the 28 articles of our campaign for adoption of the UN CEDAW itself, we have chosen to focus on 3 key human rights areas to fulfill the implementation of the Resolution: economic security; safety at home, in the workplace and in public spaces; and health andwell-being. That is why the previously adopted 2 Resolutions on Equal Pay (2015 and 2020), and policies on Livable Wages as well as the Comparable Worth study and action steps we were told were in the 2018 City Strategic planare so critical to implementing the CEDAW Resolution’s commitment to economic security for women, girls and those most under-represented in our community. Including the City to serve as an equity and fairness model for businesses, non-profits, schools and other key institutions onissues of pay equity, fairness and economic security for women and girls. The 2 Pay Equity Resolutions are also in the Belonging in Bozeman (BIB) plan adopted late in 2023 with our recommendations and participation. We also have been pleased to work with the Econ Vitality CAB identifiedthat oversees all City DEI policy and programs and specifically Resolution 5384. The Task Force has been invited to share our progress and recommendations with the CAB as we have done with all of the City Commissioners. But for some reason the CAB isn’t asked to review thisfoundational DEI activity by the Equal Pay Report. Nor the VenderResolution report or support the Comparable Worth study. The Task Force appreciates the City of Bozeman 2024 Report on Equal Payper Resolution 4601 requirements from HR Director and her staff. The THRIVE Index analysis is especially helpful. However, it is difficult to locate the specific areas of “excellent” progress from the 2024 Report data todemonstrate how the diversity of women employees in our City workforce are achieving pay equity within their job categories and certainly without using a system of Comparable Worth. For example, it is excellent progress to have more women working in theBozeman Police Department, but how does this demonstrate pay equity advancement without knowing their positions and how they are comparably paid to others in the City? And how does this relate to the BIB implementation strategies and role of the CEDAW Resolution Be ItResolved requirements? We hope you consider these Recommendations to strengthen future City government Equal Pay and Economic Security actions and to model these for the larger community: 1. In addition to the City's annual HR Report on Equal Pay – please integrate another data from our City Finance Department including their recommendations on the Pay Equity Vender Resolution to measure impact as well as remind the community of itsexistence. 2. Incorporate Comparable Worth into the City’s 2024 Strategic Plan and work with all relevant City Departments and CAB’s to undertake the promised study followed by Action Steps asneeded. Based on the understanding that CW was to be studied in the 2018 Strategic Plan, we developed and shared a best practices Report based on other Cities and State’s experiences with CW and share with the former City Manager in 2021. In case it is helpful to learn more on Comparable Worth: Comparable Worth: Meaning, Equal Pay, What's Next (investopedia.com) Comparable Worth: Meaning, Equal Pay, What'sNext Comparable worth, also known as “pay equity,” is aimed at levelingout salaries based on a job’s value, or worth... We as co-leaders followed-up directly a number of times with the former City Manager after all the Task Force co-leaders (Carson Taylor, Lei-Anna Bertelsen and myself) met directly with him in 2021 with our Report and recommendation to help the City implement this part of the 2018Strategic Plan. And did not ever receive any information in follow-ups about how this was being implemented. And when the BIB was being formulated and recommended for adoption in meetings with lead staff member Dani Hess who stated - after consulting the former City Managerabout inserting it in the 2023 BIB plan - that Comparable Worth was never in the 2018 Strategic Plan. 3. Training about CEDAW policy and process for the CityCommission, City Managers and all relevant staff to facilitate combined collaboration as part of the intersectional gender analysis of CEDAW's Resolution followed by Action Steps to close the disparities within and across City Departments with a focus on comparable worth as part of apriority of economic security measures in the City of Bozeman 2024 Strategic Plan. This knowledge and understanding can strengthen and multiply the ways to close the pay gaps and address/prevent the feminization of poverty in our workforce women employees and for ourcommunity. 4. Training about CEDAW for the Economic Vitality and all relevant CAB’s so this intersectional genderanalysis and resulting Action Steps are applied as part of Equity and Inclusion throughout the City government where all decisions are being made and recommended. 5. Know these recommendations areworth it! Read the words from the high school members of our City for CEDAW Task Force in their 2022 Op Ed piece (attached below) - for they are the future of why we do this work and strive to meet the values of our City and community. Thank you for your consideration and care. Best, always. Jan Jan Strout pronouns: she/ella co-leader, Bozeman City for CEDAW women's human rights Task Force Bozeman, Montana 206.251.0880 "If you are free, free somebody else. If you have some power, your job is to empower somebody else." - Toni Morrison ESTABLISHING A BOZEMAN CITY FOR CEDAW RESOLUTION CAN CHANGE LIVES Fifty-nine years ago, in 1963,the Equal Pay Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Kennedy. Yet, women are still facing significant wage disparities that cannot be accounted for when controlling for other factors. U.S. Census Bureau data (2020) indicates that nationally, women working full time annually earn approximately 83 cents for every dollar paid to men. The situation is even worse for women of color. Black women earn 64 cents, Native American women earn 60 cents, and Hispanic women earn 57 cents. Today, the pay gap in Montana is ranked 23rd State worst in the country with women earning an average of 78 cents for every dollar paid to men (U.S.Census Bureau 2022). Our City of Bozeman is making improvements toward gender and all equity. But more long-lasting change is needed to ensure these crucial solutions are strengthened and expanded. This year, on April 5th, the Bozeman City Commission is commemorating National Equal Pay Day, per its 2015 City Resolution. On that same day,the Commission is proposing a new Resolution No.5384, to advance the human rights of the diversity of women, girls and those most underrepresented, a Bozeman City for CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women). CEDAW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and protects women and girls from violence; safeguards the legal status of women regarding health, education and economic inequality; and addresses the influence of cultural factors on gender relations. The United States is the only established democracy that has yet to ratify CEDAW and that’s why 100+ U.S. Cities have adopted or in progress Ordinances or Resolutions that act to identify and redress disparities against women, girls, those at risk. The goal of Resolution 5384 is to institutionalize the CEDAW women’s human rights framework at the local level, thereby achieving guarantees to advance women's and girls' health, safety and economic security. Our Bozeman Cities for CEDAW Task Force concluded the adoption of this Resolution will allow for economic security of women and families to be measurably improved.Women’s work is continually undervalued, and it is essential that we address the need for pay equity, comparable worth, paid family and sick leave, and safety and justice in the workplace. For young women, we need programs such as expanded Title IX support to identify and eliminate bias and inequities throughout our educational programs and activities, school safety programs to prevent and address all forms of violence, as well mental health support. The implementation of the human rights principles and framework of CEDAW can make a tangible difference in the lives of women, girls and those most marginalized through providing real, legal protections that are desperately needed. Establishing a Bozeman City for CEDAW Resolution, enabling the collection of more local inclusive data followed by Action Plans, is more important than ever. Especially given the multiple impacts on women and girls from the most under-represented communities laid bare from the COVID Health Pandemic and economic crisis. We need to look at these issues through a lens of intersectionality that includes our race, ethnicity, age, ability, economic status and other identities and in order to actively support marginalized groups of women. Through the Bozeman City for CEDAW Resolution 5384, the fight for gender and all equity will be advanced. The Bozeman Task Force calls on members of our community to stand with the 2,000+ residents who signed our Petition, and the 50+ organizations and diverse leaders who endorsed the Resolution to create greater inclusion, equity, and fairness for all. You can help us by: 1) making Public Comments for CEDAW Resolution 5384 in writing to our City Commissioners in advance (agenda@bozeman.net) or in person/virtually during the April 5th meeting; 2) writing letters to the Editor; 3) sharing information with others who care. Our Facebook page has updated information here:www.facebook.com/bozemanforcedaw Together the citizens of Bozeman can make Bozeman a safer, welcoming and more just community. Ellie Cornish and Florence Doyle are local Highschoolers. Danika Comey is the Community Engagement Coordinator at Bozeman Health. All are members of the Bozeman Task Force to Advance the Status and Safety for All Women and Girls, the action arm of the Bozeman Cities for CEDAW initiative.