Women Fight For Equal Pay From City Of Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – New numbers show women who work for the city still make less money than their male counterparts, but leaders are working to change that.

"There's not just one glass ceiling where women aren't able to rise through the ranks; there are actually multiple," said Caity Maple, local women's rights advocate.

Maple said statistically, California women are still struggling to achieve equal pay.

"Nobody wants to be the whiner or the one speaking out, of course that's not what it is, it's just telling it like it is," she said.

A statewide survey found that, on average, for every dollar a full time working man makes, a woman only make 84 cents.

In Sacramento, women make around 89 cents to the dollar.

"We are doing better, but we are not doing the best that we can," said City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby. She spearheaded the campaign. She said one of the most notable discrepancies is in upper management.

Out of the 22 highest paid city employees, only 5 are women.

"Why aren't women not making it from this $60,000 a year marker to the three-figure salary?" she said.

So next week she'll be asking her colleagues for new recommendations including new mentorship and networking opportunities, creating a new office to oversee leadership development, and hiring a new diversity and equity manager to monitor progress.

"I just want to make sure that the opportunities for women are there so as they advance their careers they want, to move up into management," Ashby said.

With the recent women's march and day without a woman, it's an issue that's getting a lot more scrutiny.

"I have a 3-year-old daughter and I don't want her to go to rallies to be heard, I want her to go to college and get a great education and then earn equal pay to her counterparts. I want this to be a battle that ends with my generation," she said.

Equal Pay Day is Tuesday. This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.