CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is prioritizing equal pay for women for Women’s History Month.
The mayor signed an executive order calling for a public audit of city workers’ pay twice a year, stating that the move is meant to root out causes of inequity.
“Why this audit, I think, is so important is because we will be a public measuring stick of whether or not we are making progress…to make sure that women have equity in the workforce,” Lightfoot said. “They can hold this administration accountable and every future administration accountable for the goals and the standards that we have set.”
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All told, the pay equity executive order will see the city:
- Conduct a pay audit of the City workforce to identify gender and racial inequities in employee compensation.
- Publish a report compiling the findings of the audit including, at a minimum, a comparison of pay by job title, bargaining unit, sex, race, and ethnicity.
- Make the report available to the public by publishing it on the Department of Human Resources website.
- Act upon the results of the audit to address any gender or racial disparities in earnings.
Lightfoot also aims to eliminate pitfalls where women of color can get stuck on dead-end tracks in lower-paying fields.
City workers will also undergo training on addressing gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace.
