The Honorable Senator Thomas J. Umberg
Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee
1021 O Street, Room 6730
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 1162 (Limón), Employment: Salaries and Wages- SUPPORT
Dear Senator Umberg:
On behalf of the San Francisco Women’s Political Committee (SFWPC), we are writing in strong support of SB 1162, which would require the disclosure of salary ranges on all job postings, and require companies to publicly report pay data broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex for both direct employees and independent contractors. By moving pay information out of the shadows and into the public spotlight, SB 1162 will be a step toward fair wages as companies feel the pressure of public accountability.
SFWPC’s mission is to endorse, empower, and elect people as candidates for local office who self-identify as women and those who share our values. SFWPC champions policies and candidates committed to advancing intersectional feminism, racial justice, gender equity, and equitable systems and structures through participation in the San Francisco political process. We provide an advocacy and political network to build a bench of diverse women+ candidates, activists, organizers, and leaders who will advance these goals at every level of governance and beyond.
Women, particularly women of color, and most especially the members of the Latino, Black, and indigenous communities are vulnerable to pay inequity. Latinas earn the lowest when compared to women from other ethnic groups. Latina women earn just 49 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. Indigenous women make 50 cents and Black women, on average, earn 58 cents.
Earning less money pushes women and their families into poverty. Half of all households in America are headed by women. The cost of groceries, gas, rent and childcare are still the same whether you are a man or a woman, and these pervasive pay disparities mean that more women, and the families who rely on them, continue to struggle financially. Our local economies lose when women earn less, the 2021 U.S Census Bureau estimates every year, women have lost $930 billion dollars because of pay inequity.
SB 1162 would also require employers to report on pay for those who work through third party contractors. Independent contractors are especially vulnerable because they do not have the same rights as employees, such as health insurance, unemployment benefits, and job security. SB1162 will create transparency for this especially vulnerable population.
We urge you to support SB1162 as it will protect and empower women, promote equity in pay, and create trust between workers and employees, especially women and people of color who are the most vulnerable.
Sincerely,
SFWPC Board of Directors
1 Figures for Black women and Latinas are National Women’s Law Center calculations based on U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2021 Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Table P-41, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/ time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-people.html. Figures for AANHPI women and Native American women are NWLC calculations based on 2020 American Community Survey microdata, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/. Respondents to both surveys self-identify their sex as either male or female and self-identify their race and whether they are of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.
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