WHEREAS, Women have entered the labor force in large numbers over the last decade, Rhode Island State Government has affirmed gender wage gaps in at least two major studies of the state's job evaluation and classification systems, and the most recent study indicates that not only is the wage gap persistent, but that the gap has widened; and

WHEREAS, Despite some improvement in narrowing the gap on the national level, as of 1990, Rhode Island women earned 66.3 percent of what men earned, while according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1990 report, earnings for women nationally were reported at 71.2 percent of men's earnings; and

WHEREAS, Most research on this subject has concluded that much of the wage gap is attributed to sex and race based wage discrimination; and

WHEREAS, The National Conference of State Legislatures urges all states to move toward the establishment of equitable compensation relationships between female and race dominated classes and further to establish pay equity through the enforcement of existing laws and the enactment of laws to guarantee equal pay for work of equal value; and

WHEREAS, The Rhode Island House of Representatives supports the principle of pay equity for public employees and encourages the administration to work towards ensuring equal pay among job classes with similar levels of responsibility, knowledge, skill level and effort; and

WHEREAS, The House of Representatives also supports all efforts to attain and implement accurate and unbiased job evaluation systems and pay setting processes to foster equity for all jobs; and

WHEREAS, The House of Representatives also supports the use of unbiased job evaluation systems which evaluate jobs on gender and race-neutral factors such as responsibility, knowledge, skill level and effort to distinguish between legitimate difference in wages and wage differentials which are due to sex or race discrimination and occupational segregation; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives hereby respectfully requests the Division of Human Resources of the Department of Administration to monitor the progress of Rhode Island state government, with oversight by the Legislative Commission on Pay Equity, and together with the commission to work towards a gender neutral classification for all employees from the state pay and classification systems; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Director of the Department of Administration's Division of Human Resources and the chair of the Legislative Commission on Pay Equity.