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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-07-26 Public Comment - J. Strout - - Bozeman City for CEDAW Public Comment for City Commission Equal Pay Day reportFrom:Jan Strout To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Bozeman City for CEDAW Public Comment for City Commission Equal Pay Day report Date:Tuesday, April 7, 2026 10:12:33 PM 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 City leaders, Here our complete testimony that was drastically reduced and wanted to share our citations for other more trusted data on Montana's pay equity status. Thank you for the honor to receive the appreciation and your Mayoral Proclamation - containing the strongest commitments I have ever heard from a Bozeman City Mayor in a long time and please have 3 more copies made for others on our Task Force leadership. And if you can share this with the HR Director, Cassandra may be interested in our data sources linked below. Best, Jan Dear Mayor and Bozeman City Commissioners, My name is Jan Strout, pronouns she/hers and on behalf of Kris Laird, who also lives in NW Bozeman, we are co-chairs of the Bozeman City for CEDAW Task Force and are here in that role. CEDAW is the UN document to advance human rights of all women and girls that the Bozeman City Commission unanimously adopted our City for CEDAW Resolution 5384 in April, 2022. We are here to commemorate CEDAW Resolution’s 4th anniversary as well as National Equal Pay Day on the City’s 11th anniversary to unanimously adopt our Resolution 4601 in 2015. We are also here to offer our appreciation and recommendations. First, we express sincere gratitude for beginning to implement the CEDAW Resolution, starting with training - hopefully expanding this to all Elected and City- appointed positions - and over the years, your ongoing efforts to adequately furnish our city with Pay Equity reporting and the THRIVE Index for effective workplaces. Second, we’d like to voice support and desire to see this City commitment in Policy efforts Strengthened to advance women’s and community safety, economic equity and security as well as health and well-being as human rights for all women and girls, and other persons and communities who are under-represented - FOR ALL to benefit through the following Measures: Deliver an intersectionality analysis in the Equal Pay Report (as required in the CEDAW Resolution) for Indigenous, women of color, LGBTQIA+, and Moms penalty; We understand that the difficulty of obtaining a gendered Intersectional analysis required in the CEDAW Resolution given that we want to protect the privacy of our employees whose numbers may still be few; however, a compilation together by these other intersectional identities of race, gender, age and ability with further analysis may yield recommendations for future actions to address or prevent possible equity gaps and disparities. Leverage Best Practice research on Pay Equity in recommendations to the Annual City EPEW Report and to submit to our Economic Vitality Citizens Advisory Board and Belonging in Bozeman Coordinator to create recommendations to address and/or study any of the pay equity gaps identified in said EPEW City Report; *Soon after our Equal Pay for Equal Work Resolution was adopted, in 2016, we studied other U.S. Cities that had more experience and successful practices in Pay and Gender Equity and shared those recommendations to the HR Department. And again on Comparable Worth in 2021. We hope these are still available and happy to share if not in the Staffing transitions. We understand the need for Comparable Worth and Market requirements in setting Pay, but hope you might look at how those may result in gendered pay inequities with lessening of comparable worth corrections. *We also urge you to incorporate the Equal Pay Resolutions and relevant City Policies including reporting as part of Bozeman City for CEDAW implementation- Pay Equity is already one of its Human Rights Articles. Right now there are 3 separate Departments that coordinate Equal Pay commitments - HR, BIB Engagement for CEDAW and Finance which tracks the Vender contractual benefit for Equal Pay and the NDO. These should be parts of a whole system of human rights solutions to fairly and equitably Belong in Bozeman. *That’s why, we also recommend a City of Bozeman Human Rights Commission at the level of a City Advisory Board that can bring together all of the City’s human rights Ordinances and Resolutions, and other relevant Policies. We understand the City Commission and Study Commissions are discussing ways to evaluate our City Boards participation numbers, participation and effectiveness and urge you to add this to those discussions. Note there are not any Montana-based Stats, annual reporting, or indication pay inequity exists from the MT Department of Labor and Industry since 2021 when the new Governor abolished them. We can, at minimum, remedy this as a City; *Because of the ways in which our State and Federal Governments may not have or choose to not have reliable data on gender pay equity, and other economic fairness measurements, we encourage you to look at credible expertise through vetted research by independent Women’s Foundations and Research Institutes~ 1. Women’s Foundation of MT - has 2024 Report on the Status of MT Women: Advancing Policy for Economic Equity which we’ll highlight Women's Foundation of Montana | The Status of Women in Montana:…(see important Topline Findings) 2. Institute for Women’s Policy Research - New IWPR Analysis Reveals the Wage Gap Follows Women Everywhere—Even Into Industries They Dominate - IWPR Economic security for women and families is fragile and contributes to pay disparities and the feminization of poverty across our city and beyond. At a time when women's human rights are being eliminated in our State policies, budget and oversight, and our civil rights in the US Constitution, we cannot continue to accept commitments on paper that are not implemented effectively to make a difference in our lives as residents of this city and state. All forms of gender- and race-based violence are on the rise and healthcare for women, particularly those living below the poverty line, will be lost and/or severely compromised with the closure of 8 Rural MT Hospitals/clinics due to MEDICAID funding cuts in the 2025 Federal Budget Bill coming due at the end of this year. We need these human rights commitments to our safety and economic security if we are to thrive and truly feel we “belong.” We urge you, keep going in the direction you’re already taking great steps towards… take what’s on paper and make it real. Robustly implement Bozeman City for CEDAW. Thank you, Kristin Laird and Jan Strout Co-Leaders, Bozeman City for CEDAW Taskforce Resident Locations: Northwest Bozeman Sincerely, Jan Jan Strout pronouns: she/ella co-leader, Bozeman City for CEDAW women's human rights Task Force Follow Us! Facebook 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