Assemblymember Dodd Takes Aim at Closing Gender Pay Gap in California

Monday, March 2, 2015

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Bill Dodd (D-Napa) today introduced legislation requiring companies that do business with the state of California to provide the state with data on employee income by gender and race. With the introduction of Assembly Bill 1354, Assemblymember Dodd is taking an important step towards gender pay equity in California.

“While California is often a driving force for social change, one area that has been greatly overlooked has been the promotion of equal pay for women,” Assemblymember Dodd said. “Income inequality is not a problem anybody should have to bear, and AB 1354 begins to address this challenge.”

Assemblymember Dodd was joined in introducing the bill by co-authors Senators Lois Wolk, Holly Mitchell, Connie Leyva, Loni Hancock, and Cathleen Galgiani, and Assemblymembers Susan Bonilla, Lorena Gonzalez, Susan Talamantes Eggman, Rob Bonta, Rocky Chavez, and Patty Lopez. Over the last decade, full-time working women in the U.S. have continued to earn an average of just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. For women of color, the disparity is even greater. In 2013, the pay gap between men and women amounted to an annual average of $10,876 in lost income.

“Current and future generations, including my granddaughters, are relying on us to do the right thing to ensure they have equal opportunity and equal pay.” said Dodd. “If we fail to bring change, women will continue to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetimes to income inequality.”

“This issue needs attention and it needs it now,” said former Lake County Supervisor Denise Rushing, who was recently selected as the Assembly District 4 Woman of the Year. “It’s time we treat pay equity as a right, not a luxury, and I appreciate Assemblymember Dodd addressing this issue.”

While aggregate data on the gender pay gap is available, more nuanced data breaking down job category wages by gender and race has not been widely gathered. In order to appropriately target efforts to reduce and eliminate the wage gap, this data needs to be collected. In 2014, President Obama directed the U.S. Department of Labor to collect the gender and race pay data from federal contractors to fill in the same sort of missing pieces. AB 1354 seeks to do the same for California.

Assemblymember Bill Dodd represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of Yolo, Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Solano, and Colusa Counties.

CONTACT: Ezrah Chaaban, (916) 319-2004