CINCINNATI — More than 40 local employers signed a voluntary commitment this year to close gender and race-based pay gaps in Hamilton County.
While March 14 was Equal Pay Day in the United States, the Hamilton County Commission on Women and Girls hosted its second annual Pay Equity Commitment Signing Day Wednesday to address the disparity.
In 2022, the Pew Research Center reported women in the U.S. earned on average $0.82 for every dollar a man earned. They also found that the pay gap did not decrease as much from 2002 to 2022 as it did from 1982 to 2002.
"Although gains in education have raised the average earnings of women and have narrowed the gender pay gap overall, college-educated women are no closer to wage parity with their male counterparts than other women," Rakesh Kochhar with Pew Research Center reported.
When race, age and parental status are included, the pay gap increases even further.
"When you don't pay women a fair wage, you disadvantage their families because many of them are head of household (and) you disadvantage the community because we can't grow and our wealth can't grow," Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said.
The pay equity commitment employers signed Wednesday discusses ways to implement specific solutions to help address these issues.
Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, who attended the event, lauded Driehaus' efforts and said the county is at the forefront of this fight.
"What she's done here is tremendous because she has rallied the different businesses and different stakeholders in Cincinnati and in Hamilton County to come in and say, 'You know what, we will sign that when girls are committed as they become women and enter the workforce, they will be paid in equal wage as men,'" McGuffey said.
Driehaus said that while it is frustrating that pay equity has not been achieved, seeing more and more employers support it means they are getting somewhere.
"We need to amplify that message ... to say this is an issue and we've got companies in Cincinnati, in Hamilton County, that are committed to this work and want other people to follow that example," said Driehaus.
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