The following is a release from King County:
King County has joined as a founding member of the 100% Talent Initiative, a new five-year program launched by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Women’s Funding Alliance to address gender pay disparities in King County.
“Closing the gender pay gap is essential to our values of equity and fairness, and has profound benefits for the workplace and our regional economy,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “My thanks to the Council for unanimously backing my measure to make King County a founding member of 100% Talent, and committing the resources to support it.”
“I am very proud that King County is partnering with the Women’s Funding Alliance and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to end the gender pay gap in our region,” said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, prime sponsor of the legislation and representative on the council for north Kirkland and Nortshhore. “At the current rate of progress, the gender pay gap in Washington State is not projected to close until the year 2071. Pay disparities are even worse for women of color. We can’t sit by and leave this problem for future generations to solve.”
Faced with the daunting statistic that full-time working women in the Seattle metropolitan area earn just 73 cents for every dollar earned by men, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Women’s Funding Alliance joined forces to launch a voluntary, employer-led gender equity initiative. 100% Talent includes an investigation into the root causes of the gender wage gap as well as promising solutions, including 33 specific “best practices” for achieving gender equity in King County. The initiative also sets a goal to have 500 companies in the region pledge to join the effort in the first five years.
“We’re pleased to have King County’s support for this voluntary, solutions-oriented approach to improving gender pay equity in our region,” said President and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Maud Daudon. “Making sure everyone is paid fairly for the valuable work they do and using 100 percent of our talent is absolutely necessary for the Seattle region’s long-term success.”
“We’re excited King County will be part of this important initiative for women, families and our community,” said Liz Vivian, Executive Director of Women’s Funding Alliance. “We’re looking forward to working with the county, and our private sector partners, to shine a spotlight on the best practice solutions to close the wage gap for all women in our area.”
By becoming a founding member of 100% Talent, King County committed to the initiative with a three-year financial sponsorship, pledged additional resources such as employee trainings and data analysis, and renewed the County’s efforts do its part to help close the gender wage gap. The County’s equity and social justice tools and expertise are expected to provide additional assistance to program participants targeted at reducing disparities for women of color.
