[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Comments on Gender Wage Gap Study

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Young, Mary

Jane and Joyce,


Thank you for this report. I am impressed by its depth and breadth, it dug deeply and questioned superficial results.


It is impressive that Boulder holds a leadership position in this area. Nevertheless, parity is parity and we are not at "equal pay for equal contributions." (pg. 18 of report).


Here are my comments:


-In the area of Hiring Practices (pg. 4 of the report) Revolution Advisors brings up the idea of "representation." Just below in the Opportunities and Recommendations section they bring it up again, along with the suggestion to "enhance its capabilities for data collection."  On page 21 they mention representation again in Equitable Hiring Practices. I suggest that these recommendations extend to racial and ethnic representation. In reading the report, one can infer that representation could be expanded to include these areas as well, though this was not directly included in the scope.


-With respect to hiring practices, Revolution Advisors did not recommend anonymizing resumes, but this is something to consider as a way to further eliminate bias.


-Analyze how this report could be overlaid with the Welcoming and Inclusion report. BTW - when do we get to weigh in on that?


-Affinity Networks are mentioned on pg. 21, to that I would ask that you consider also a recommendation from a city of Austin report<https://cityofaustin.github.io/institutional-racism/IRSI-Task-Force-Final-Report-Updated-4-7-17.pdf> to create social cohorts (p. 63.) The Austin report is the work of a task force on institutional racism. I realize this is out of the scope of this particular study, nevertheless, there are other valuable and applicable recommendations (pp. 57-66) in the Austin report.<https://cityofaustin.github.io/institutional-racism/IRSI-Task-Force-Final-Report-Updated-4-7-17.pdf>


Thank you again for this report and the opportunity to weigh in and for moving forward with intention.


Best,


Mary Dolores Young
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

"All ethics . . . rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . ." - Aldo Leopold