Councilmember Blumenfield launched ‘Equal Pay LA,’ a new local effort to close the gender pay gap and hold bad actors accountable. Currently women in the United States are paid $0.80 cents to the dollar compared to what their male counterparts make and the burden of proof remains on the shoulders of the employee, rather than the employer. Blumenfield contends that the issue is deeper when considering race. African American women are typically paid $0.61 cents, Native American women $0.58 cents and Latinas just $0.53 cents for every dollar paid to white men. Eliminating this pay gap could equate to more than a year of food, seven months of mortgage payments, ten months of rent or one year of tuition at a state college.
On the local level, inspired by a legislative idea from Vice President Kamala Harris' Presidential Campaign, Blumenfield was proud to introduce Equal Pay LA to flip the script by putting responsibility on the employer to affirm equal pay instead of the employee when there are alleged unfair wage practices.