News release
Massachusetts Mom Testifies Before Congress About Seven Year Battle with Pay Disparity and the Impact on Her Family
May 13, 2014
Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996
MomsRising Member Speaks Before Senate Budget Committee
WASHINGTON, DC ̶ Despite having the same experience, job title and credentials, AnnMarie Duchon was paid less than a male colleague for seven years, losing more than $12,000 in wages. Today, Duchon joined policy experts at the Senate Budget Committee’s hearing “Expanding Economic Opportunity for Women and Families” to share her story and express her support for the Paycheck Fairness Act and other policies that need to be implemented to address wage and other forms of discrimination many women face in the workplace.
During the hearing hosted by Committee Chair Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Duchon, Associate Director of Accommodation Services at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a member of MomsRising, described her struggle to rectify the pay disparity and how the loss in wages affected her family financially.
“From the moment I was hired I made less than a male coworker doing the same job, even though our resumes were nearly identical,” Duchon testified. “When I first became aware of this disparity I asked my employer if I could be paid more. I was told no because my male coworker accepted a pay cut to take this job. However, I too had taken a pay cut to accept this position and my family depends just as much on my wages as my co-worker's depends on his wages. This is the kind of ridiculous stereotyping – the assumption that my male co-worker needed the higher salary and I did not – that is still prevalent in too many workplaces today and used to justify wage discrimination. My raise was denied and I was being paid less because I am a woman.”
Five years later, when Duchon and her co-worker were promoted to the same higher position at the same time, the wage gap increased. Finally, after having several conversations with her boss over a seven-year period, Duchon’s pay was raised so that it was equal to that of her male colleague. But the damage to her family’s finances was already done.
“My husband and I are both first generation college graduates with crushing student loan debt,” Duchon said. “$12,000 in lost wages accounts for a year’s worth of childcare, or 10 months’ worth of mortgage or student loan payments. All expenses that we struggle to pay for.”
Unfortunately, Duchon’s story is not rare and in many cases employers have official policies that penalize employees for discussing their wages with coworkers. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the wage gap is greater for women of color and mothers.
“There are more than 84 million moms in the U.S. and three-quarters of moms are in the labor force,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “All of these moms are facing a Maternal Wall when it comes to wages. Women without children make 90 cents to a man's dollar, moms make only 73 cents, and that gap increases even more for single moms and women of color. Policymakers can begin to address this disparity by enacting the Paycheck Fairness Act, which protects workers from retaliation for asking about their employers' pay practices or their own wages.”
Duchon said that she wanted to testify today to encourage Congress to pass legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act, which can help end wage disparities.
“I hope that by the time my daughter Gracie is able to understand what wage discrimination based on gender is all about, it will have long since been resolved,” Duchon said. “According to recent research, at the rate we're going, if we don't take action, the wage gap won't close on its own until my 5 year old is nearly 50, or even much much older. Instead, I hope that Congress will take action so that the idea of Mommy being paid less than a man while working at the same job will be a relic concept from ancient times, kind of like life without the internet or smartphones.”