Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall touted her city’s record on pay equity Thursday and encouraged others to follow suit in thoroughly analyzing employee wages.
Speaking in front of downtown’s City Hall, Mendenhall said Utah’s capital did a meticulous audit of salaries for nonunion employees and found that only three (two women and one man) of about 1,000 workers analyzed were paid a wage that was unfairly low. Those discrepancies, she said, have since been remedied.
The city is willing to ask itself tough questions, Mendenhall said, so it can set an example for others to scrutinize every employee’s salary.
“Please take the time,” she urged. “Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, a nonprofit, or whatever entity you are, please do this evaluation, because the income and the stability of our families in this community are depending upon it.”
Utah consistently ranks worst in the nation in equitable pay for women, Mendenhall noted. White women usually earn 71 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make, she said, and that gap widens for women of color.
“This is completely unacceptable, and it’s really astonishing in the year 2022 that we can still look our employees in the face who you rely on,” she said, “whether you’re a small business or you’re a large corporation, that we can look our employees in the eye and still not pay them fairly.”
On average, women who work for Salt Lake City without union representation make about $3 an hour less than men, according to the report. But factoring job duties and qualifications like certifications, the city found that gap justifiable. Those who do the same or similar work are paid equitably, according to the city.
Union-represented employees have wage scales already outlined in agreements with the city. Those workers make up most of the workforce and include public safety employees, skilled laborers such as carpenters and electricians, and office staffers like administrative-support personnel.
The audit did not consider salaries for elected officials, appointed employees like department heads, seasonal workers and part-time employees.
Salt Lake City commissioned the audit in fall 2020, and the study was completed the following March. Mendenhall said cascading crises delayed the city’s release of the results.
David Salazar, a human resources administrator with the city, said the city is a leader in pay equity and that other municipalities in Utah and elsewhere should look to follow its lead.
He said hiring managers and recruiters are mindful of fairness on the front end and ensure that job offers don’t create inequitable pay.
“That’s our commitment today and going forward,” he said, “is to continue with the work that we’ve started. And we’ll continue to monitor and watch closely and make sure that what we do takes into account not somebody’s gender, not their ethnicity or their age, but the experience that they bring to the table. That’s what we value most here in Salt Lake City.”
