Women in Illinois make 80% of what men make, and advocates want to close the wage gap

During her career in the nonprofit sector, Sharmili Majmudar noticed two things: Most of the jobs were held by women, particularly women of color, and the roles were generally underpaid.

“I’ve definitely gotten the message that the fact that I really believe in a mission, or I believe in social justice, should somehow compensate for the fact that I’m underpaid,” said Majmudar, executive vice president of policy, programs and research at the advocacy group Women Employed.

“It wasn’t really until mid-career that I even attempted to negotiate,” she said. “And it was scary.”

Majmudar is not alone. For every dollar a man makes, women make 84 cents, according to 2022 data from the U.S Census Bureau for full-time, year-round earners. The disparities are even larger for women of color.

The gender pay gap is the focus of Equal Pay Day, which falls on Tuesday. The Equal Pay Chicago Coalition will host a virtual discussion Tuesday on salary transparency, with panelists such as Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Cristina Pacione-Zayas, first deputy chief of staff for Mayor Brandon Johnson. The coalition was formed nearly 15 years ago by Chicago attorney Barbara Yong, of the law firm Golan Christie Taglia.

Illinois is among the first states to pass legislation requiring employers to disclose salary ranges and banning employers from asking about salary history, according to the National Women’s Law Center, but Chicago advocates say there’s more to be done to level the playing field for women.

To support that mission, the Equal Pay Chicago Coalition is working to not only to embolden women to negotiate their pay but educate them on their rights and encourage employers to be more thoughtful about their approach to compensation.

“We should see this as an injustice,” said Majmudar, who serves on the coalition’s steering committee, which includes more than 50 organizations, businesses and government agencies. “We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that someone is losing out on over their lifetime because of the gender wage gap.”

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Reaching pay equity

In 2022, full-time, salaried women workers in Illinois made about 80% of what men made, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Between 2012 and 2022, women’s average earnings as a percentage of men’s has fluctuated but ranged from 78% to 86%. Nationally, the women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio for the same period has stayed relatively consistent at around 81%, reaching a high of 83% in 2021 and 2022. The only time women workers in Illinois saw a higher earnings ratio compared to the national figure was in 2014 and 2015, with about 86% and 83%, respectively.

Local pay equity advocates and compensation experts couldn’t explain the fluctuations but shared how the pandemic may have contributed to the percent remaining at about 80% from 2019 to 2022.

“The pandemic definitely had a significant impact on women in the workforce but less of a dramatic impact on the gender wage gap,” Majmudar said. “The industries in which women are concentrated in — lower-paid roles, such as hospitality, retail and childcare — were hit very hard by the pandemic.”

This was explored in a 2022 report looking at how the pandemic exacerbated economic barriers for women in Chicago.

For jobs that employed mostly women, the median annual earnings was $51,848 in 2020, about 13% less than the city’s overall median earnings of $59,493, according to the report. The study was led by the Mayor’s Women’s Advisory Council, World Business Chicago, Women Employed and the Civic Consulting Alliance.

Jobs that employed predominantly men had median annual earnings of $64,259, an estimated 8% higher than the overall median earnings.

The report also said most working women in Chicago have children, but the living wage for one adult with one child is $65,269. “Women are not paid enough to afford to live in Chicago,” the report said.

Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed an executive order last year requiring the city to conduct a “comprehensive pay equity audit” every two years to address this issue among city workers.

The over-representation of women in lower-paying jobs is a contributing factor to the gender wage gap, said Dow Scott, professor of human resources at Loyola University Chicago. But raising wages across labor markets may be untenable, he said.

“It would increase costs substantially to do that,” Scott said, citing burdens on consumers and taxpayers.

Scott and pay equity advocates said higher-paying jobs can attract women by being more family-friendly, such as offering maternity leave, childcare assistance, and paid family and medical leave.

“We should be valuing women’s labor as much as we value men’s labor, and that means that we need to make sure that we have policies that don’t push people out of the workforce,” Majmudar said.

‘You can always ask for more’

Equal Pay Chicago Coalition has previously hosted Equal Pay Day rallies that drew hundreds to Daley Plaza. The coalition, now led by advocacy group Women Employed, continues to host workshops and events as well as provide scholarships.

“I’m just so proud of what we’ve done,” said Yong, who is still on the steering committee. “Women still have a long way to go, and hopefully, we’ll make a difference.”

Provided

The coalition’s mission is also supported by Mason Cole, partner at Cole Sadkin, whose Chicago law firm is a member of the organization.

“Frankly, as a white man, they probably don’t need more people like me doing the explaining,” Cole said. “I think it’s more of, ‘You need to show up and actually listen.’”

Cole said he recognizes the barriers women face in the law industry specifically.

“When you look at law firm partnership tracks, it’s still all white men,” he said. “And so I think as much as pay transparency is helpful, you also need to deal with the root causes of why women and people of color are pushed out of leadership.”

One step women can take is knowing their value, said Starr De Los Santos, Women Employed’s senior coalition manager, who serves on the Equal Pay Chicago Coalition steering committee.

“Know that you can always ask for more, that you do bring something to the table and that you can maybe go somewhere else,” De Los Santos said. “Just knowing that will make such a huge difference.”