Guest editorial contributed by Judy Amabile
President and Co-founder, Polar Bottle
[Polar Bottle is a Community Partner of The Community Foundation]
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pay gap between men and women in Colorado is widening. That said, according to The Community Foundation’s TRENDS Report, we’re making progress where the minimum wage is concerned: while the current state minimum wage is $8.31 per hour, there’s tremendous momentum behind a movement to raise the minimum wage to $15.
While some local businesses, like Polar Bottle, have long since raised their wages above the required minimum, it would be very helpful if the state provided specific guidelines to help companies like mine achieve true pay equity. Understanding the benefits of pay equity – not only for the advancement of women and families in our state, but for business success, too – is crucial for broad implementation of supporting business policies and practices.
At Polar Bottle, for example, we’ve tried to develop business practices aligned with our values, while competing in an increasingly crowded field of foreign manufactured Polar Bottle lookalikes. From the beginning, we’ve endeavored to provide a good work environment, and to be fair and equitable with our employees.
In 2011, we started our unskilled production employees at $8 per hour. We had no difficulty finding people for these jobs, but we did experience a lot of absenteeism and turnover. We determined that the living wage for an employee in Boulder County whose employer provided health insurance was $12 per hour. While that seemed like a big hit to our bottom line, we felt compelled to raise the minimum pay … and increase the pay for production staff by a similar percentage.
The anticipated hit to our bottom line never happened. On the contrary, our employees were more productive, and turnover decreased dramatically. People were able to get their cars fixed. They had better childcare options. They valued the jobs more. And our per bottle labor cost actually went down.
It turns out that other companies have had the same experience – and that a workplace that supports female employees to succeed at work, while balancing the demands of family life, actually helps companies attract and retain good employees. Which, in turn, boosts the bottom line.
But we need more than anecdotal evidence that instituting pay equity – along with family-friendly policies – is both the right thing to do and a smart business decision. Numerous studies and metrics document the economic benefits of paying a living wage, and the real costs of turnover and absenteeism. It’s up to a legislature body – like the recently disbanded Colorado Pay Equity Commission – to help standardize and disseminate these findings, and guide businesses like ours to implement pay equity and family-friendly policies.
Related stats & resources:
- Colorado women are still paid only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men and the gap is getting wider.[i] The gap is considerably larger for women of color – African American women earn only 65.5 cents and Latinas just 53.8 cents for every dollar earned by white males, who are the highest earners.[ii]
- If Colorado women earned the same as comparable men, the poverty rate for all working women would be cut in half and the state economy would grow by an additional $9.2 billion or 3% of the state’s GDP in 2014.[iii]
- Over the last 10 years, reductions in the wage gaps have slowed down. The gender wage gap is projected to not close until 2057 in Colorado and 2059 nationally.[iv]
