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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.              
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING ALL EMPLOYERS TO REVIEW THEIR WAGES TO AVOID
    INADVERTENT DISCRIMINATION.



 1        WHEREAS, new statistics from the federal Department of
 2   Labor show that women still lag behind men in terms of pay,
 3   making only 73 cents for every dollar made by men; and
 4   
 5        WHEREAS, part of the reason for this gender pay gap are
 6   the different choices men and women make in their employment
 7   choices; and
 8   
 9        WHEREAS, however, some of the inequity continues because
10   employers, consciously or unconsciously, pay men more than
11   women, and whites more than other ethnic groups; and
12   
13        WHEREAS, one recent example of this kind of thinking is
14   Eastman Kodak, which was approached in 1999 by a local chapter
15   of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
16   People, representing two hundred women and minorities, claiming
17   that Kodak was paying white men more than women and minorities
18   with similar experience levels in the exact same jobs, and when
19   Kodak investigated this allegation, the company found that it
20   had unintentionally discriminated against women and minorities
21   and paid out $13 million in retroactive payraises; and
22   
23        WHEREAS, other organizations, including Eli Lilly and the
24   Massachusetts Institute of Technology, when pressed by women
25   employees, found that they were committing the same type of
26   unintentional discrimination; and
27   
28        WHEREAS, because this kind of discrimination is insidious
29   and not intentional, it is often difficult for the employer to
30   spot; now, therefore, 
31   
32        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
33   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
34   of 2000, that the State, counties, and each private business in
35   the State are urged to review their pay scales to determine
36   whether or not their employment practices discriminate against
37   women and non-whites by paying them less than white males doing
38   the same work with the same level of experience; and
39   

 
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                                  H.R. NO.              
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that each entity perform this
 2   review, for its own benefit, in an expeditious manner, and, if
 3   any inequity is found, the employer use its discretion in
 4   remedying the situation; and
 5   
 6           BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
 7   Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Labor and
 8   Industrial Relations and the mayor of each county, and the
 9   Director of Labor and Industrial Relations is requested to
10   place a copy of this Resolution prominently on the department's
11   website and make paper copies available on as widespread a
12   basis as possible.
13   
14 
15 
16 
17                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________