How Do We Close the Wage Gap? By Finally Imposing the Rule of Law on Corporations

How Do We Close the Wage Gap? By Finally Imposing the Rule of Law on Corporations

How Do We Close the Wage Gap? By Finally Imposing the Rule of Law on Corporations

If Zephyr Teachout becomes New York’s attorney general, she will use the full power of the office to fight pay discrimination.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Elections matter. Just ask the people of Iceland, who in 2017 elected a government led by a proud and outspoken 42-year-old feminist, the Left-Green Movement’s Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who announced that “Closing the [gender] pay gap is doable. We have said that we are going to implement the equal-pay standard in five years.”

Iceland had already taken some of the boldest steps in the world to address the wage gap between women and men—with groundbreaking legislation and social advocacy—when Jakobsdottir became prime minister. But the new leader, who had championed the legislation as a member of Iceland’s national parliament, signaled that she was determined to use the whole power of her position to move the needle from promises to practices.

Declaring that she wants to “accelerate the process of change,” Jakobsdottir has been working to implement pay-equity standards on a faster timeline than has been dictated legislatively. The prime minister does not stop there. Arguing that equal pay for women must be recognized as an essential economic and social-justice issue, Jakobsdottir has made it clear that a societal shift is the goal. She says, “I don’t think it is as simple as achieving a gender equality goal and then sitting back and relaxing.”

It is a big deal when elected officials are determined to use all the power of their positions to make real the promises of their campaigns. And that is especially true with issues like pay equity, where rhetoric and action have not always been so closely linked as need be.

This is one of the reasons New York attorney-general candidate Zephyr Teachout has placed workplace issues so high on her campaign agenda—right up at the top with her pledges to take on “Trump Lawlessness and Corruption” and to “Clean Up Albany.”

Teachout is running in a competitive Democratic primary on Thursday, facing able rivals. In this competition, the Fordham Law School professor and former national director of the Sunlight Foundation has identified herself not just as legal scholar but also as a legal activist who is prepared to apply the rule of law to the most powerful corporations in the world.

“It is no coincidence that the more power we give large corporations, the less empowered their workers become. This is especially true for those workers who have been historically disenfranchised: including women, people of color, and immigrants,” says Teachout, a veteran advocate for initiatives to address corporate power and to protect worker rights. “It is imperative to hold these corporations accountable when their workers’ rights are abused.”

In addition to pledging to “investigate wage theft, especially in vulnerable sectors like the service industry” and to “ensure that workplace safety regulations are enforced,” Teachout is highlighting a commitment to “Investigate any company doing business in New York that violates the New York State Fair Pay Act or the [federal] Lilly Ledbetter Act. No employee with the same job should be paid a different wage on the basis on sex, race or national origin, and their claims should never be barred by a statute of limitation.”

Teachout recognizes that change does not just happen because good laws are on the books. Those laws must be enforced, aggressively and enthusiastically. “To close the pay gap for women and people of color in New York,” she says, “we need an AG who will vigorously pursue violations of these laws.”

Can we count on you?

In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.

We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.

Stories like these and the one you just read are vital at this critical juncture in our country’s history. Now more than ever, we need clear-eyed and deeply reported independent journalism to make sense of the headlines and sort fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and uplifting the voices of grassroots advocates.

Throughout 2024 and what is likely the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you rely on.

Thank you,
The Editors of The Nation

Ad Policy
x