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Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat

About the Authors

Jean Evans

Jean Evans is a member of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Hawaii Public Policy Committee. She has more than 30 years鈥 management experience in nonprofit health, education and social service agencies in Hawaii. Evans served in executive director positions for Palama Settlement and the American Lung Association in Hawaii. In addition, she held management positions with ALU LIKE, Inc., Kapiolani Health, and the American Cancer Society in Hawaii. She was awarded two degrees from the University of Hawaii — a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in public health.

Nancy Rustad

Nancy Rustad is a member of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Hawaii Public Policy Committee. She is a scientist who earned a B.A. in Zoology and a M.S. in Pharmacology from the University of Iowa. Rustad spent her career at 3M in the health care area in multiple roles including research, product development, project management and supervisory management. As a volunteer, she held AAUW leadership positions at local, state and national levels ultimately serving as AAUW National President. Rustad held leadership roles on multiple nonprofit boards including the Minnesota Women鈥檚 Consortium and Solid Ground and on advisory boards at the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota. She currently serves on the Hawaii Wildlife Center Board of Directors

They work 73 extra days to earn what men earn in a year. Hawaii should take the lead in fighting this.

March 14 is National Equal Pay Day symbolizing how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Women work 73 extra days to earn what men earn in a year.

Women and their families have lived with pay inequity for decades. This pervasive inequity has a lifelong impact on future salaries and retirement lives. It persists across job categories and disciplines. We just learned that the U.S. Women鈥檚 soccer coach was paid a quarter of what the men鈥檚 coach earned in the last year.

Closer to home, women in Hawaii were making great strides in closing the gender pay gap with women earning 89.4 cents for every dollar that men made in 2019. Unfortunately, the gap has significantly increased recently.

Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the gender pay gap has worsened in Hawaii. Women in Hawaii earned 79.4% of what non-Hispanic white men did in 2020 compared to 82.3% nationwide.

This makes us 37th among all states and the District of Columbia in income equality. The state’s ratio fell below 80% for the first time since 2011.

The decline may be partly due to the pandemic in Hawaii where a higher percentage of women left their jobs than did in most other states.

While the gender pay gap is found across ethnic/racial groups, age groups, educational groups and occupational groups, minority women experience larger pay gaps.

For example, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women who are full-time workers made 66% of what non-Hispanic white men who are full-time workers made in 2021.

The pay gap is not a 鈥渨omen鈥檚鈥 issue, it is a family issue penalizing the many households in Hawaii needing more than one paycheck. This disparity in pay penalizes children excessively, because many children reside in female-headed households.

Women and their families have lived with pay inequity for decades. (Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat/2018)

Hawaii need not accept this situation, but can be a leader in the field of pay equity. Passage of Act 108 in 2018, which prohibited employers from inquiring into salary history of potential hires, was a big step toward ensuring pay equity.

This year a new bill (, Relating to Employment Earnings) being considered would increase pay transparency and provide a strong equal pay protection with a minimal cost or disruption to employers. This bill requires employers to make salary range information available to employees and job candidates.

Research shows that workers stay longer and are more productive when treated with dignity and respect.

A recent Harvard-Berkeley study showed that pay inequality decreased worker attendance, cooperation and output. According to a Forbes article, salary transparency and attempts at pay equity will attract millennials, and will be more attractive in a competitive market.

Being up front about wages saves businesses time and money so that they are not interviewing candidates who will eventually turn them down.

The pay gap is not a 鈥渨omen鈥檚鈥 issue.

In addition to fairness, this is also about efficiency. Salary ranges help employers manage their pay expenses and ensure pay equity among employees. It is critical that employers have rational explanations for why they pay their employees a certain rate, and defined salary ranges accomplish that.

As documented by the National Women鈥檚 Law Center, seven states (California, Washington, New York, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island and Connecticut) already have salary transparency as state laws.

We all want a workforce that is efficient, productive and motivated. We want to attract the best employees, increase commitment and decrease turnover.

We can鈥檛 achieve those goals unless we address pay equity. Surely, we have the will to do so.

It’s time for Hawaii to become a front-runner in pay equity and the next step is by assuring salary transparency.

Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It鈥檚 kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to news@civilbeat.org. The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.


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About the Authors

Jean Evans

Jean Evans is a member of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Hawaii Public Policy Committee. She has more than 30 years鈥 management experience in nonprofit health, education and social service agencies in Hawaii. Evans served in executive director positions for Palama Settlement and the American Lung Association in Hawaii. In addition, she held management positions with ALU LIKE, Inc., Kapiolani Health, and the American Cancer Society in Hawaii. She was awarded two degrees from the University of Hawaii — a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in public health.

Nancy Rustad

Nancy Rustad is a member of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Hawaii Public Policy Committee. She is a scientist who earned a B.A. in Zoology and a M.S. in Pharmacology from the University of Iowa. Rustad spent her career at 3M in the health care area in multiple roles including research, product development, project management and supervisory management. As a volunteer, she held AAUW leadership positions at local, state and national levels ultimately serving as AAUW National President. Rustad held leadership roles on multiple nonprofit boards including the Minnesota Women鈥檚 Consortium and Solid Ground and on advisory boards at the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota. She currently serves on the Hawaii Wildlife Center Board of Directors


Latest Comments (0)

If this was all true. I would hire only women to work for me then I would save a lot of money however, this is not true and I have women and men working for me at the same rate.

postulas · 1 year ago

The advertisement for a senior level job I had with a small, private university listed a PhD as a preferred qualification. Yet I was paid far less than men who were in senior roles, who did not have PhDs and had less experience than I did. All of us managed budgets and staff and a couple of us, including myself, worked with technologies and software.

Heliconia · 1 year ago

Every properly conducted study that I have seen in the past 15 years concluded that in nearly all occupations women make either the same or more per hour actually worked than men of the same level of educational attainment, professional qualifications and work experience. There are dozens of occupations - some quite obvious, some rather counterintuitive - where women make a lot more per hour than men; plenty has been written about this, it's trivial to google up hundreds of articles and webpages that talk about gender pay inequities that lean strongly in favor of women. Professional sports is one of the very few occupations where men make a lot more than women.

Chiquita · 1 year ago

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IDEAS is the place you'll find essays, analysis and opinion on public affairs in Hawaii. We want to showcase smart ideas about the future of Hawaii, from the state's sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email news@civilbeat.org to submit an idea.

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