Minnesota unions praise historic legislative session

May 24, 2023 by

Gov. Tim Walz spoke to supporters before signing 12 budget bills into law.

In a historically productive legislative session that ended on time Monday, labor-endorsed lawmakers delivered on nearly all their campaign promises, from investments in public infrastructure and schools to expansion of family-supporting benefits, union rights and workplace protections.

Union activists and leaders were among hundreds who celebrated the session’s accomplishments today on the Capitol grounds, as Gov. Tim Walz held a signing ceremony for 12 budget bills that will fund state government for the next two years.

Walz likened the newly approved budget to the “Minnesota Miracle” of 1971, when the state drew nationwide acclaim for investing in public education.

“If this is ‘Minnesota Miracle 2.0,’ the difference between then and now is … we’re leaving no one behind,” Walz said.

Labor leaders praised Walz and DFL legislators for rising to the occasion created by a projected budget surplus that swelled to $17.5 billion – thanks, in part, to one-time federal stimulus dollars that Republicans blocked the state from allocating one year ago.

After winning all three levers of power – with support from union volunteers – during the 2022 election, DFLers invested the surplus in infrastructure projects and jobs, schools, nursing homes and targeted tax relief for working families, including an expanded child tax credit that will return up to $1,750 per child to lower-income families.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, former director of the Minnesota Children’s Defense Fund, said the budget is “deeply rooted in equity and decades in the making.” She credited organizers and activists who have devoted years to fighting for policies that will soon become law, like earned sick and safe time and paid family leave.

“We have played the long game,” Flanagan said. “And we won.”

Children and families will also benefit from $2.26 billion in new funding for Minnesota’s public schools over the next biennium. The 10.5% increase will help school districts cover rising costs – and recruit and retain educators and other employees. And the budget allocates $600 million to hire and retain child care teachers.

Walz and DFL lawmakers focused on issues that matter to workers and families, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham said, noting that their work stands in contrast to Republican-controlled chambers in other states that have sought to ban abortion, weaken child-labor laws and meddle in school curriculum.

“While other states are putting 14- and 15-year-olds to work on assembly lines, Minnesota is making sure parents have the time and resources to care for and sustain their families; while other states ban books in our schools and libraries, Minnesota is making sure no student goes hungry at school; and while other states make it harder to vote, Minnesota is expanding our Democracy to make sure every eligible voter has the freedom to make their voice heard,” Burnham said.

Public works, transportation and other infrastructure will see historic investments as a result of the session, putting members of unions like the Laborers to work for years to come.
Education Minnesota members praised a 10.5% increase in school funding.
SEIU Local 284 celebrated extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees.

Walz is also expected to sign a $2.3 billion infrastructure deal that contains a mix of borrowing – a so-called “bonding” bill – and cash investments. It would be the first bonding bill the state has passed since 2020.

Sen. Sandy Pappas, the lead author, said the measure “will create thousands of well-paying union jobs and ensure businesses have the infrastructure they need to build in Minnesota for years to come.”

On the Capitol grounds today, Walz gave a shout to people in hard hats throughout the crowd. “All of these good union jobs have built the middle class and built Minnesota,” he said. “It is going to continue that way.”

In addition to historic investments approved this session, Minnesota lawmakers took up several policy changes long sought by union members, including an extension of unemployment benefits to hourly school employees, a ban on private prisons and a new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board with the authority to set standards like pay and benefits.

Lawmakers expanded and strengthened union rights, enshrining public-sector workers’ ability to bargain on non-economic issues like safe staffing and class sizes, giving workers in the newly legalized recreational cannabis industry a path to collective bargaining and banning “captive audience meetings,” in which workers are forced to listen to their bosses’ religious, political or anti-union views.

Funds allocated this session will also bolster the state’s film industry tax credit, raise pay for home care and nursing home workers and strengthen public pensions.

A measure to address hospital staffing shortfalls, however, fell short of the Minnesota Nurses Association’s expectations. The bill established new safety protections and recruitment bonuses for health care workers, but it left out language that would have would have required hospitals to create labor-management committees to determine appropriate staffing in their wards.

Support for a safe staffing law dwindled after Mayo Clinic threatened to withhold investments in its Rochester campus if it passed.

“I hope Minnesotans know how hard nurses fought for your care and safety,” MNA President Mary Turner said. “And I hope corporate executives and our public officials know that our fight is not over to put patients before profits in our health care system.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MN Historical Society staff wins parental leave, longevity pay in first union contract

March 8, 2023 by

MNHS workers and supporters rallied for a fair contract at the Minnesota History Center in December 2022.

Union members and the Minnesota Historical Society reached a tentative agreement yesterday on a first contract that would raise wages across the board, provide six weeks of paid parental leave and compensate staff members for their longevity with the organization.

The Historical Society’s 250-plus workers voted overwhelmingly to form their union in November 2021, and the three-year contract – reached in the 40th week of bargaining – would deliver progress on several concerns behind the union drive, AFSCME Local 3173 President Molly Jessup said.

“It was really important for us to be very conscientious of what we were trying to do, keeping our membership’s best interests in mind, making decisions with a high level of integrity and getting the things we needed right,” said Jessup, who works at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.

Parental leave and higher pay were among workers’ top demands. MNHS staff members currently do not have access to paid family leave, and an overwhelming majority of employees are earning wages in the lowest quadrant of the pay scale for their positions, regardless of their tenure with the organization.

New longevity-based pay scales in the tentative agreement, Jessup said, would compensate a “significant portion” of the bargaining unit “for their work ethic and for their institutional knowledge.”

“We’re just tremendously proud of our members for pushing for these things that they really deserve,” she said. “And we are so grateful to our friends and family and community members and employees past and present.”

AFSCME Council 5, which represents over 43,000 public service workers statewide, announced the tentative agreement in a press release today. Executive Director Julie Bleyhl said the contract demonstrates the power of collective bargaining.

“These workers’ hard-fought campaign for a fair and equitable first union contract proves the Union Difference and shows the incredible power of solidarity and direct action while fighting for the dignity and respect that all workers deserve,” Bleyhl said.

MNHS union members staged workplace demonstrations, a public petition drive and rallies throughout the bargaining process to pressure the employer to move closer to workers’ demands. Members also collaborated on a social media campaign, offering up personal stories about why they supported their union’s contract demands.

Over 100 community members turned out for a rally at the History Center in St. Paul last December, but Jessup said support from the local labor community has been critical at every step of their union journey.

Workers at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, who organized a union with AFSCME in 2020, “gave us a lot of encouragement” during the organizing process, she said, while union members from Starbucks, the Teamsters and the newly organized AFSCME unit at the Science Museum of Minnesota joined their contract rally in December.

“Without that community support, we wouldn’t be where we are now,” Jessup said. “And we hope we will be able to pay that forward.”

Workers will take a ratification vote on the tentative agreement in the next three to four weeks, after union leaders hold informational meetings with MNHS workers across the state.

Jessup said she expects union members will find time to celebrate their first contract in the near future, too. Members of the bargaining team briefly shared “happy tears and joy and a lot of gratification” after reaching the tentative agreement yesterday, she said, before several had to hurry off to judge History Day competitions in the area.

“This wasn’t just contract negotiations for us, this was building our local union from the ground up,” Jessup said. “Knowing how much energy and passion and sacrifice have gone into this, both from our members who are here and from some of our colleagues who have moved on from the organization, it’s been very powerful and emotional for us.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

As session begins, Minnesota unions see opportunity for investments in infrastructure, frontline workers

January 31, 2022 by

Essential workers marched outside the Capitol during a union rally last summer.

With a projected $7.7 billion budget surplus, state lawmakers have an historic opportunity, union leaders said, to fully invest in public services, infrastructure and frontline workers during the 2022 legislative session, which began today.

Lawmakers traditionally take up capital investments – the so-called “bonding bill” – in even-numbered years, but the record surplus, coupled with unspent federal pandemic relief funds, could allow for more broad spending measures this year, including long-delayed compensation for frontline workers.

Unions also plan to lobby for pro-worker policy changes like paid family leave, and to remain vigilant in preventing attacks on existing worker rights and protections from gaining traction.

While Gov. Tim Walz and a labor friendly DFL majority in the House have expressed an appetite for robust investments and pro-worker policies, the outlook is less rosy in the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority.

“The Senate has proven to be an obstacle – if not a roadblock – for years to paid family and medical leave, as well as more recently frontline worker pay,” said Melissa Hysing, the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s legislative and strategic research director. “The challenge is always going to be the Senate.”

Minnesota unions are sure to advance their own priorities to the Capitol with solidarity from the labor community. But here’s a look at the agenda unions crafted together as part of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which unites over 1,000 affiliate unions and 300,000 working people.

Union tradespeople called on lawmakers to pass a bonding bill outside the Capitol in 2020.

• Infrastructure jobs

Not only is it a bonding year, but the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden last November, gives Minnesota an opportunity to leverage additional funds for capital investment and create tens of thousands of family-sustaining jobs.

The Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, the voice of the state’s construction unions, praised Walz’s Local Jobs and Projects Plan, unveiled earlier this month. In a statement, Executive Director Tom Dicklich said the $2.7 billion infrastructure bill would leverage funding to support “statewide projects for years to come.”

“The passage of the Local Jobs and Projects act will provide an opportunity to create a solid pipeline of projects that can sustain the construction industry and the jobs it provides,” Dicklich said. “We thank Governor Walz and his team for putting forward this plan and urge all lawmakers to work together to make these needed investments in the jobs and infrastructure that Minnesota deserves.”

At a rally in downtown Minneapolis in December 2021, advocates called on legislators to stop playing politics with a fund created to compensate essential workers.

• Frontline worker pay

Last July, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $250 million in funds to compensate essential workers for keeping the state running during the COVID-19 pandemic. But workers never received a penny, as lawmakers on a bipartisan working failed to agree on who should be eligible.

Republicans on the working group blocked any plan that did not direct the payments to a narrow pool of health care workers, first responders and long-term-care workers. But unions, including the Minnesota Nurses Association, argued against excluding any frontline worker.

Hysing said the Minnesota AFL-CIOwill support Walz’s proposal to give each of the state’s estimated 667,000 frontline workers a $1,500 bonus, calling it “unfinished business.”

Julie Bleyhl, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 5, called Senate Republicans “disrespectful” for seeking to exclude retail workers, bus drivers, janitors and others from the payments. Many Minnesotans have churned through their paid time off – or gone without pay – to quarantine or provide care for themselves and their families.

“While the need for public services has increased dramatically for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on our workforce, through forced overtime and COVID-19 exposure,” Bleyhl said. “That is why our union remains steadfast in our commitment to fighting for frontline worker bonus pay for all frontline worker heroes.”

• Paid family leave

In more unfinished business, the Minnesota AFL-CIO will continue to co-chair a statewide coalition of labor, faith and community organizations lobbying to extend paid family and medical leave benefits to all workers in the state.

The coalition supports creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

The program is included in Walz’s proposed spending package, and House DFL leaders have proposed using part of the budget surplus to pre-fund benefits for two years.

“Working people should never be forced to choose between a paycheck and taking care of themselves and the people they love, and lawmakers can take action so we never have to make that choice again,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said.

• Workers’ Compensation eligibility

Unions will encourage lawmakers to extend the law, passed in 2020, creating a presumption that first responders and health care workers who contract COVID-19 did so on the job, making them eligible for Workers Compensation benefits.

• Wage theft

Despite passing with bipartisan support in 2019, Minnesota’s new wage theft law – the strongest in the nation – has been a target of attempts to weaken its protections and soften penalties on offending employers. Hysing pointed to Republican proposals last year that would have stripped language requiring employers to notify new workers of their wages before their first shift.

“So workers wouldn’t know until after they’ve received their first paycheck what they’re supposed to receive,” she said. “One of the first defenses against wage theft is workers knowing what they’re supposed to be paid – that shared understanding between the worker and employer about what the wage is for work performed.

“We will continue to work to maintain these hard-won protections and make sure workers get paid for the work they’ve done.”

For updates on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s work at the Capitol and alerts about how to take action, follow the federation on Facebook and Twitter, sign up for text and e-mail alerts.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Outside Amazon fulfillment center, workers demand tax fairness

May 6, 2021 by

Tyler Hamilton is in his fourth year working at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee.

SHAKOPEE – Minnesota workers unfurled a “Tax the Rich” banner outside Amazon’s MSP1 fulfillment center here today. It was a not-so-subtle suggestion to state lawmakers about how they might pay for investments in child care, paid family leave, education, infrastructure and other supports for working families.

Tyler Hamilton, in his fourth year working at MSP1, said he and others inside the facility could use a little support right now.

“Honestly, I’m tired,” the Maplewood resident said during a press conference organized by local unions. “And I’m not just tired from working night shift, even though I’m a night-shift guy.

“I’m tired from working in this building behind me for over a year during the coronavirus pandemic and having to deal with all the stupid stuff Amazon does all the time – and they get away with.”

But the pandemic has been anything but exhausting for corporations like Amazon and the wealthiest Americans. With stock markets posting record gains over the last year, the super-rich have consolidated even more wealth. U.S. billionaires increased their combined wealth by $1.62 trillion, or 55 percent, between March 2020 and April 2021, according to an analysis published last month.

Inequality in the U.S., already sped up by corporate tax cuts in 2017, has shifted into overdrive. “Evidently, those tax cuts don’t go toward their workforce,” Hamilton said. “It’s really frustrating.”

Minnesota lawmakers have an opportunity to restore some fairness to the system before the Legislature’s scheduled adjournment May 17, other speakers at the event outside Amazon said.

Mary Solheim, a child care provider from Maplewood, described a state of “chronic underinvestment in care for the children” of Minnesota’s workforce – a crisis made worse by the pandemic, as frontline workers not eligible for essential care struggled to find care for their children after school buildings shut down.

Solheim was precise about where to pin the blame. “We know there is enough for everyone to thrive in Minnesota,” she said. “But for too long, corporations haven’t paid their fair share.”

Public school educators have seen chronic underinvestment firsthand too, said Kate Schmidt, president of Dakota County United Educators.

Meeting students’ needs, she said, requires smaller class sizes, more access to counselors and other specialists, healthy meals and safe buildings. But instead of fully funding those priorities, school districts across Minnesota are preparing to lay off teachers, a response to uncertain state funding.

“This year let’s demand that our Legislature ensure the wealthiest among us pay their fair share,” Schmidt said. “That’s how we fund the future of our students, by ensuring every child has what they need to focus on all they can become, whether they are black, brown or white.”

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, emcees a press conference calling on corporations like Amazon and the super-rich to pay more taxes.

Octavio Chung, a union Laborer from Hugo, said improvements to the state’s transportation system and other infrastructure are urgently needed. Corporate profits rely on getting products to customers, after all.

“Corporations like Amazon need to pay their fair share so we can address decades of delayed essential maintenance and upgrades to provide all Minnesotans with safe roads and bridges, more affordable housing and functional school buildings,” Chung said. “It is long past time.”

Debate over whether to fund these and other priorities is likely to heat up at the Capitol next week, as the deadline to adjourn draws closer.

Gov. Tim Walz has proposed – and Republicans in control of the Senate have opposed – small tax hikes on some corporations and on individual income over $500,000, or over $1 million for married couples filing jointly.

Among the proposed investments Walz and DFLers who control the Minnesota House would make with the extra revenue is paid family leave for all Minnesota workers. That’s a measure Hamilton, who believes he contracted COVID-19 while working at MSP1 last year, said is long overdue.

“I was out of work for a month, the majority of that being unpaid,” Hamilton said. “It’s tiring having to work hard to pay your bills – 10-hour shifts, 12-hour shifts – only to be hit with something like getting sick and falling behind because we don’t have paid family medical leave or paid sick leave like we should.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Working people plan big push for paid family leave next year

December 17, 2018 by

Miguel Lindgren, a state employee and member of MAPE, describe how valuable paid family leave – which state employees won in contract negotiations two years ago – in the process of adopting a child from Colombia last September.

Supporters of paid family and medical leave launched a lobbying push at the Capitol today, calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation next year expanding the benefit to all Minnesota workers.

“It’s simple, it’s popular and it’s the right thing to do,” Pastor Corinne Freedman Ellis of Macalester Plymouth United Church in St. Paul said during a press conference at the Capitol, surrounded by fellow clergy, working people, retirees and business owners.

Ellis is a leader in the faith-based advocacy group ISAIAH, one of 25 local organizations leading the Minnesotans for Paid Family Leave campaign. Eight unions are on board, and the state’s largest labor federation, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, is a campaign co-chair.

The groups propose creating a statewide insurance pool that would cover the cost of replacement wages for workers who take time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or to be with an ailing family member. Workers would be eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave, with benefits ranging from 55 to 80 percent of their typical wages.

To build up the insurance pool, employees and employers would make mandatory contributions, similar to payroll deductions for health insurance or workers’ compensation. The median worker would pay an estimated $1.75 per week into the fund.

Similar policies are on the books in eight states, and two powerful lawmakers in Minnesota – Lt. Gov.-elect Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Melissa Hortman, the next Speaker of the House – have expressed support for making Minnesota the ninth.

The policy enjoys support among voters, too. A recent Pew poll found 84 percent of Americans back paid family and medical leave, but only 14 percent of U.S. employees have access to the benefit.

Jason Rathe, who owns a landscaping business in Minneapolis with over 20 employees, called the coalition’s proposal a win-win for working people and business owners.

“I really believe paid family leave is important to businesses because it creates a level playing field,” Rathe said. “It allows our employees and ourselves to do the things that are important.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , ,

Dayton’s final two years create window of opportunity for progress, unions say

October 31, 2016 by

capitolDuring the 2015 legislative session, a group of DFLers in the Minnesota Legislature put forth a bold set of proposals for paid family leave, earned sick and safe time, fair scheduling and protections to ensure people get paid for their work.

They called it the “Working Parents Act,” and it went absolutely nowhere.

“We couldn’t get any action on any of the proposals in the House,” Sen. Sandy Pappas remembered. “We couldn’t get them to hold hearings or have any kind of discussion on the issues we were raising.”

One year later, Pappas and her colleagues in the DFL-controlled Senate dialed down their expectations. They zeroed in on paid family leave, passing a measure that would ensure new parents aren’t forced to choose between their careers and their families during the critical first weeks of a child’s life.

Once again, the legislation hit a roadblock in the House, where Republicans held a majority.

It’s a pattern that’s played out on a number of issues at the Capitol over the last two years. And lawmakers and labor leaders agree that progressive, pro-worker legislation will continue to languish in the House unless working families win majorities in both chambers Nov. 8.

That means electing labor-endorsed candidates like Burnsville small business owner Lindsey Port in House District 56B, Rosemount realtor John Huot in District 57B and dozens of others across the East Metro area.

Port believes guaranteeing families access to paid leave is “one of the best ways we can grow the middle class.”

“It is a win-win for both employees and employers,” she said. “It allows employees to spend critical time with loved ones and employers to keep well trained and talented workers. This should be a top priority in the 2017 legislative session.”

Huot wants to see Minnesota make working families’ health care more affordable. A former emergency medical responder and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, he believes Minnesota is the kind of state that is capable of thinking big.

“The insurance companies are going to keep cutting away, and pretty soon we’ll all end up with high deductibles and high premiums,” Huot said. “One of the biggest reasons I’m running is because I know we’re a state that can fix it. We can figure this out, but you’ve got to get the right people in office.”

A working-families majority might be critical to preserving gains made on another labor priority, earned sick and safe time, at the local level.

Both St. Paul and Minneapolis passed ordinances expanding access to the benefit this year, but a Chamber of Commerce lawsuit now claims they are in conflict with state law. Similar lawsuits targeted local smoking ordinances until lawmakers passed a statewide smoking ban in restaurants in 2007.

“When 1.1 million workers across Minnesota lack access to earned sick and safe time, we need lawmakers who will build on the progress we’ve made in St. Paul, not undermine it,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “That’s what our labor-endorsed candidates will do.”

Perhaps no one is rooting harder for a labor majority in St. Paul next year than Gov. Mark Dayton, who has two years remaining in office. Some of his biggest accomplishments so far – raising the minimum wage, restoring fairness to the state’s tax system and signing the Women’s Economic Security Act – came in 2013-14, when labor-endorsed lawmakers controlled both legislative chambers.

“We saw what was done in 2013-14,” Pappas said. “We were able to rock and roll on a lot of our issues, and we’d love another window of opportunity to progress on these key issues for families.”

Filed Under: Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Advocates stage last-ditch rally for paid family leave

May 17, 2016 by
Sen. Katie Sieben of Newport, a lead propoent of paid family leave, leads a rally outside the Capitol.

Sen. Katie Sieben of Newport, a lead propoent of paid family leave, leads a rally outside the Capitol.

With fiery speeches and foam “No. 1” fingers, advocates of paid family leave rallied outside the Minnesota Capitol today, calling on House Republicans to take up the issue, which Gov. Mark Dayton called “a moral responsibility.”

Earlier this month, the DFL-controlled Senate approved a measure designed to prevent workers from being forced to choose between paying their bills and providing care for a newborn child or ailing family member.

But the bill hasn’t garnered a single committee hearing in the House, and an aide to Speaker Kurt Daudt told clergy members, who sent a delegation to the Crown Republican’s offices after the rally, that it was not among the speaker’s priorities in negotiations to close the session.

Bill McCarthy, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, urged Daudt to reconsider.

“Now’s the time for the House majority to stand with working families and support this legislation,” McCarthy said. “Now is the time to act.”

The Senate bill, supported by a coalition of labor, faith and community groups, would provide Minnesotans who miss work after the birth of a child or during a family member’s extended illness with partial replacement wages for up to 12 weeks. It’s funded by a small tax on workers and employers.

web.PaidFamLeave-fingerSenate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a DFLer from Cook, promised that if House Republicans fail to act on paid family leave this year, “the DFL Senate will be back next year” to pass the bill again.

But that was little consolation to Morgan Searcy of Northfield. Searcy, whose 41-year-old mother is gradually losing vision, will soon face a choice between going to work and helping her mother transition to life without sight.

The Senate bill’s 12 weeks of paid leave “would be enough for me to help my mom, to figure things out,” Searcy said. “It would be heaven-sent if this bill passed this year.”

It’s estimated only 13 percent of Minnesota workers have access to paid-family-leave benefits.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

For Minnesota’s women workers, ‘Equal Pay Day’ no cause for celebration

April 12, 2016 by

Cf3CzUvXIAAbKqbWomen working in Minnesota will earn $382,360 less than their male counterparts, on average, over the course of a 40-year career. As bad as that sounds, Minnesota’s lifetime wage gap is actually better than the national average.

Pay disparities between women and men are in the spotlight today on “Equal Pay Day,” but it’s not a holiday worth celebrating. Rather, April 12 marks the date the average woman worker finally will achieve the same earnings taken home by the average man in 2015.

Nationally, women employed in full-time, year-round work are paid, on average, 79 cents for every dollar paid to men – a rate that has held steady for roughly the last decade.

In Minnesota, where the wage gap is 81 cents on the dollar, lawmakers took aim at workplace inequities two years ago, raising the state’s minimum wage – most workers who earn it are women – and passing the Women’s Economic Security Act.

Sen. Sandy Pappas, a DFLer from St. Paul, was a leading proponent of WESA. She said it’s already delivered results, in part, by steering technical and financial assistance to women-owned small businesses and introducing women and girls to careers in high-wage, high-demand jobs traditionally held by men – including construction. WESA grants have helped provide training for close to 3,000 women, according to the state Office on the Economic Status of Women (OESW).

WESA also provides new workplace accommodations for pregnant or nursing mothers, and it requires contractors that do business with the state to provide proof they are meeting “equal-pay-for-equal-work” laws.

“We have almost 700 companies that have signed the certification to say, ‘Yes, we are meeting these requirements,’” Pappas said. “As we debated the bill, businesses testified that they thought this was too hard. ‘We can’t do this,’ they said. Well 700 of them have managed to do it so far.”

WESA is just one step forward in narrowing the wage gap, and even its fiercest advocates acknowledge more work remains to be done.

Expanding paid family leave and earned sick and safe time to all workers – proposals currently being debated at the Legislature – would keep Minnesota moving in the right direction, ensuring women workers don’t have to choose between keeping their families healthy and earning a paycheck.

So, too, would greater access to affordable, quality child care. Quality child care costs more in Minnesota than all but two other states, according to OESW. A single mother with one infant would pay, on average, 89 percent of her income to place her child in accredited, center-based care, leaving too many women with no choice but to opt out of working full time.

An investment in child care also would boost wages for child care workers, 95 percent of whom are women. Average pay in the industry is less than $10 per hour.

It’s just one example, Pappas said, of a female-dominated occupation plagued by low wages.

“A percentage of the pay gap is due to the fact that women go into these jobs that are not paid very well,” Pappas said. “As a society, we don’t value these professions like child care and teaching enough, and the wages show it.”

Lawmakers like St. Paul Rep. Rena Moran are also pushing initiatives to address the “disparity within the disparity” – the far greater wage gap that exists for women of color.

An analysis of 2014 Census Bureau data – the most recent available – by the National Women’s Law Center found African American and Native American women in Minnesota will earn, on average, more than $830,000 less than men over the course of a 40-year career. For Minnesota’s Latina women workers, the gap is more than $1 million.

“That has to change if we’re going to create true economic equity,” Moran said.

The Women of Color Opportunities Act, authored by Moran, would target academic assistance to girls of color in public schools, train women of color in financial literacy, introduce them to non-traditional career opportunities and provide grants and assistance to small businesses owned by minority women.

There’s no silver-bullet solution to narrowing the wage gap, of course. But collective bargaining has proven to be among the most effective answers.

Among union members nationwide, women working full time earn about 91 percent of what their male counterparts make, according to the NWLC. At 9 cents, the union wage gap isn’t perfect, but it beats the national average by 57 percent.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,