SLS 16RS-1323 ORIGINAL
2016 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 58
BY SENATOR COLOMB
LEGIS POWERS/FUNCTIONS. Recognizes Tuesday, April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day
in the state of Louisiana.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To recognize Tuesday, April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day in the state of Louisiana.
3 WHEREAS, for more than fifty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women,
4 especially minority women, continue to suffer the consequences of unequal pay; and
5 WHEREAS, House Concurrent Resolution No. 145 of the 2013 Regular Session of
6 the Legislature, by Representative Leger, established the Louisiana Fair Pay Task Force to
7 study wage disparities between men and women and to make recommendations for policy
8 changes and legislation to prevent and eliminate the disparities of unequal pay; and
9 WHEREAS, the findings of the Louisiana Fair Pay Task Force were published and
10 submitted to the Legislature of Louisiana on March 1, 2014; some of the findings are
11 included within this Resolution; and
12 WHEREAS, according to the United States Census Bureau, full-time working
13 women who worked year-round in the year 2013 earned an average of 78% of the earnings
14 of their male counterparts, which indicates minimal progress in pay equity; and
15 WHEREAS, nationally, women's median annual earnings were $39,621; the highest
16 paid women workers were in the District of Columbia with annual earnings of $61,718,
17 while the lowest paid women were in the state of Idaho with annual earnings of $31,019; and
18 WHEREAS, in the state of Louisiana, women represent a steady number of the work
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1 force, comprising 44.3% of the full-time, year-round Louisiana labor force; and
2 WHEREAS, in Louisiana, women working full-time, year-round in 2014 earned an
3 average of $31,586, which is a decrease of $276 from the 2011 earning average of $31,862;
4 and
5 WHEREAS, the decrease in Louisiana women's earnings dropped Louisiana's
6 ranking from forty-sixth to forty-seventh lowest among the fifty states and the District of
7 Columbia; and
8 WHEREAS, in contrast, Louisiana men working full-time, year-round earned on
9 average $48,382, which is an increase of $2,069 from 2011, ranking Louisiana men
10 twenty-second with average earnings greater than the earnings of men in twenty-nine other
11 states; and
12 WHEREAS, nearly four in ten mothers are primary income producers in their
13 households, and nearly two-thirds are primary or significant earners, which makes pay equity
14 critical to families' economic security; and
15 WHEREAS, in Louisiana, poverty is most prevalent among female-headed families
16 with children under eighteen years of age; and
17 WHEREAS, poverty rates were highest in Louisiana for black women and girls at
18 36.1%, Hispanic females at 27%, Asian females at 25.6%, and white females at 14.3%; and
19 WHEREAS, in Louisiana, educational attainment is greater for women than for men
20 who are twenty-five years of age or older; and
21 WHEREAS, according to one study, 84.7% of Louisiana women have a high school
22 degree or higher education, compared to men at 81.2%; 15% of women have attained a
23 bachelor's degree, compared to men at 13.7%; and 7.8% of women have a graduate or
24 professional degree, compared to men at 7.3%; and
25 WHEREAS, in Louisiana, women and men are not paid equitably for their
26 educational attainment; and
27 WHEREAS, according to an estimate, college-educated women who work full-time
28 earn more than a half-million dollars less than their male peers earn over the course of a
29 lifetime; and
30 WHEREAS, a lifetime of lower pay means women have less income to save for
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1 retirement and less income that is calculated in a Social Security or pension benefit formula;
2 and
3 WHEREAS, the members of the Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus who support
4 equal pay join with the American Association of University Women and other women's
5 organizations across the state of Louisiana and the United States to share information
6 regarding equal pay; and
7 WHEREAS, fair pay equity policies can be implemented simply, without undue costs
8 or hardships in both public and private sectors; and
9 WHEREAS, fair pay strengthens the security of families and eases future retirement
10 costs, while enhancing the American economy; and
11 WHEREAS, Tuesday, April 12, 2016, symbolizes the time in 2016 when the wages
12 paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year.
13 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
14 proclaim Tuesday, April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day in Louisiana and urges the citizens of
15 Louisiana to recognize the full value of women's skills and their significant contributions to
16 the labor force and further encourages businesses to conduct an internal pay evaluation to
17 ensure women are being paid fairly.
18 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
19 chairperson of the Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
SCR 58 Original 2016 Regular Session Colomb
Recognizes Tuesday, April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day in the state of La.
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