Green-collar Jobs: Equal Pay for Equal Work

Today is Equal Pay Day, a national day of awareness to draw attention to the lingering gap between women's and men's wages.

Why today?

Because it is not until today, April 28, 2009, that the average woman's earnings have caught up to the average man's earnings -- from 2008. Women who work full time earn just 78 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. The gap is even more acute for women of color: African American women earn only 69 cents and Latinas just 59 cents to every man's dollar.

But we have a chance now to make pay equity real for women across the country. We can invest in a new, green economy that asserts the principles of pay equity from its very inception.

The old, pollution-based economy continues to fail on this score. The pay gap has narrowed only by about one percent since 2002. Women's median pay was less than men's in each and every one of the 20 industries and 25 occupations that the Census Bureau surveyed. Even men working in female-dominated occupations tend to earn more than women working in the same field. Despite some legislative strides, women are still not receiving equal pay for equal work. But we hope that will begin to change with green-collar jobs.