Salt Lake City has a new policy aimed at gender pay equity for city employees, signed into effect by Mayor Jackie Biskupski on Thursday, the first day of Women’s History Month.
The move follows a recent audit that showed women in city government earn 93 cents for every dollar earned by men.
That’s more than what women elsewhere in Utah earn relative to men. State rankings compiled by the National Women’s Law Center put the pay disparity for women at 70 cents on the dollar, second worst in the nation.
The new city policy requires human resources staffers to monitor pay equity, and it bars hiring managers from asking job applicants about their salary history.
Because women’s salaries have lagged those for men, setting salaries based on previous pay can perpetuate the gender pay gap, said Julio Garcia, the city’s HR director.
The disparity costs women and their families billions of dollars annually, Biskupski said, affecting options for education, health care and housing.
“Salt Lake City has a responsibility to show others in the state how promoting equity, fairness, and diversity benefits our community,” she said in a statement.
The mayor last year instituted a gender-neutral family leave policy, offering employees six weeks of paid leave regardless of seniority.
Her office said 94 employees, including 82 men, have taken advantage of the benefit, many within the police and fire departments.
