The City of Jackson has joined a call asking state lawmakers to pass an equal pay law.
Jackson signed onto a letter by the Mississippi Women's Economic Security Coalition, a group made up of over 50 organizations across the state supporting policies that improve the economic wellbeing of women and families.
"Mississippi's women are economic drivers for their families and the broader Mississippi economy," the letter from the coalition states. "Equal pay protection would benefit the whole of Mississippi."
Forty-nine percent of the state's workforce are women, and women are nearly two-thirds of workers who make minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to the letter. In addition, more than seven in 10 work in low wage jobs that pay $11.50 an hour or less.
A 2017 report by the Mississippi University Research Center found women earned 27% less than men working fulltime in Mississippi, compared to a 19% national wage gap.
When considering race and the wage gap, white women earn 73% of the annual median earnings of white men and African American women earn 55% of the earnings of white men, according to a 2015 report by the Mississippi Economic Policy Center.
Both reports mention some of the wage gap can be explained by factors like the types of job men and women work and educational attainment. The 2017 report said a portion of the unexplained wage gap in Mississippi "may be due to discrimination," but also factors like decisions about work-life balance and choice of college...
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