To: The New Hampshire State House and The New Hampshire State Senate
Ask Your New Hampshire Legislators to Support Fair Pay
The gender wage gap is real – and it hurts women, hurts families, and hurts the middle-class. But working women can’t negotiate for fair pay unless they can find out how their own wages measure up.
Please support House Bill 1188 and Senate Bill 207, relative to paycheck equity. This legislation takes a critical step toward closing the pay gap in NH by clearly defining the conditions when male and female workers with the same job responsibilities may legitimately be paid different wages, and stops employers from requiring pay secrecy as a condition of employment or retaliating against employees who disclose wage and salary information to their co-workers.
Please stand with New Hampshire working families by voting to pass HB 1188 and SB 207.
Please support House Bill 1188 and Senate Bill 207, relative to paycheck equity. This legislation takes a critical step toward closing the pay gap in NH by clearly defining the conditions when male and female workers with the same job responsibilities may legitimately be paid different wages, and stops employers from requiring pay secrecy as a condition of employment or retaliating against employees who disclose wage and salary information to their co-workers.
Please stand with New Hampshire working families by voting to pass HB 1188 and SB 207.
Why is this important?
50 years after the federal Equal Pay Act was signed into law, fair pay remains an unfulfilled promise for New Hampshire working women. Economists say that at the current rate of progress, the gender wage gap in the United States won’t close until 2057.
Granite State working families can’t wait that long. Women deserve equal pay for equal work, and closing the wage gap will strengthen New Hampshire’s middle-class by increasing the annual earnings of two-earner and single-parent households by thousands of dollars. Granite State lawmakers could infuse millions of dollars a year into the local economy – simply by ensuring that women get fair pay.
Women don’t chose to be paid less. But common employer policies and workplaces pressures prevent or discourage women from learning how their paychecks measure up. For 60% of private sector workers in the U.S., disclosing information about wages and paid benefits to co-workers is explicitly prohibited by employer “pay secrecy” policies or actively discouraged by management culture.
Two new bills introduced in the New Hampshire legislature – House Bill 1188 and Senate Bill 207 (2014) - take a critical step toward closing the pay gap in the Granite State. These bills would help employers by clearly defining the conditions in which male and female workers with the same job responsibilities may legitimately be paid different wages. HB 1188 and SB 207 would also help women find out how their own pay measure up by prohibiting employers from firing or retaliating against employees who disclose wage and salary information to their co-workers.
Help jump-start our progress toward paycheck equity in New Hampshire by adding your name to our petition asking state legislators to support HB 1188 and SB 207. We’ll be hand-delivering the signed petition to members of the New Hampshire Senate and House of Representatives before key votes.
To find out more about the wage gap and what you can do to support fair pay in New Hampshire, please visit and follow the New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay campaign page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh
Thank you for supporting New Hampshire working families,
The New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay Team
[email protected]
On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh
______________________________________
MORE FACTS ABOUT THE WAGE GAP IN NH:
-- Progress on closing the gender wage gap in the United State has been stalled since 2004. Nationally, women’s pay is still falling short by an average of .20 cents on every $1 paid to male workers.
-- As a group, New Hampshire women who worked full-time, year round earned just .79 cents for every $1 earned by full-time male workers in 2012. Based on the median earnings of all New Hampshire workers, women in the workforce earned .77 cents for every $1 paid to male workers.
-- Economists estimate that over a lifetime, a woman will lose between $431,000 and $2 million dollars in unpaid earnings because of the wage gap. That missing money can’t be used to pay for higher education, buy a new home, save for a secure retirement or purchase goods and services from local businesses.
-- Some people say the gender wage gap is a myth. They believe that women are paid less because men and women make different choices about work and family. But women don’t choose to be paid less than male co-workers with the same qualifications and job responsibilities. When economists studied factors known to contribute to pay inequality – such as education, occupation and employment patterns – they found that 41% of the wage gap can’t be explained by worker characteristics.
-- With the exception of construction jobs, working women in New Hampshire earn less than men in every employment sector - even though NH women have equal or higher levels of educational attainment than NH men.
-- In New Hampshire, the pay gap increases for women workers with the highest levels of educational attainment. The median wage for women workers with a 4-year or advanced college degree is $39,490 a year; the median wage for men with the same level of education is $64,134 – a 38% gap.
Granite State working families can’t wait that long. Women deserve equal pay for equal work, and closing the wage gap will strengthen New Hampshire’s middle-class by increasing the annual earnings of two-earner and single-parent households by thousands of dollars. Granite State lawmakers could infuse millions of dollars a year into the local economy – simply by ensuring that women get fair pay.
Women don’t chose to be paid less. But common employer policies and workplaces pressures prevent or discourage women from learning how their paychecks measure up. For 60% of private sector workers in the U.S., disclosing information about wages and paid benefits to co-workers is explicitly prohibited by employer “pay secrecy” policies or actively discouraged by management culture.
Two new bills introduced in the New Hampshire legislature – House Bill 1188 and Senate Bill 207 (2014) - take a critical step toward closing the pay gap in the Granite State. These bills would help employers by clearly defining the conditions in which male and female workers with the same job responsibilities may legitimately be paid different wages. HB 1188 and SB 207 would also help women find out how their own pay measure up by prohibiting employers from firing or retaliating against employees who disclose wage and salary information to their co-workers.
Help jump-start our progress toward paycheck equity in New Hampshire by adding your name to our petition asking state legislators to support HB 1188 and SB 207. We’ll be hand-delivering the signed petition to members of the New Hampshire Senate and House of Representatives before key votes.
To find out more about the wage gap and what you can do to support fair pay in New Hampshire, please visit and follow the New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay campaign page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh
Thank you for supporting New Hampshire working families,
The New Hampshire Families for Fair Pay Team
[email protected]
On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fairpaynh
______________________________________
MORE FACTS ABOUT THE WAGE GAP IN NH:
-- Progress on closing the gender wage gap in the United State has been stalled since 2004. Nationally, women’s pay is still falling short by an average of .20 cents on every $1 paid to male workers.
-- As a group, New Hampshire women who worked full-time, year round earned just .79 cents for every $1 earned by full-time male workers in 2012. Based on the median earnings of all New Hampshire workers, women in the workforce earned .77 cents for every $1 paid to male workers.
-- Economists estimate that over a lifetime, a woman will lose between $431,000 and $2 million dollars in unpaid earnings because of the wage gap. That missing money can’t be used to pay for higher education, buy a new home, save for a secure retirement or purchase goods and services from local businesses.
-- Some people say the gender wage gap is a myth. They believe that women are paid less because men and women make different choices about work and family. But women don’t choose to be paid less than male co-workers with the same qualifications and job responsibilities. When economists studied factors known to contribute to pay inequality – such as education, occupation and employment patterns – they found that 41% of the wage gap can’t be explained by worker characteristics.
-- With the exception of construction jobs, working women in New Hampshire earn less than men in every employment sector - even though NH women have equal or higher levels of educational attainment than NH men.
-- In New Hampshire, the pay gap increases for women workers with the highest levels of educational attainment. The median wage for women workers with a 4-year or advanced college degree is $39,490 a year; the median wage for men with the same level of education is $64,134 – a 38% gap.