5/3/11 Preserve Funding for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights!
4/11/11 Governor Dayton's Response to the Black Economic Summit
Governor Dayton has issued responses to the recommendations made by HIRE Minnesota and other organizations and community members at the Black Economic Summit in North Minneapolis. We appreciate the timeliness of the governor's response and that he is willing to partner with us in addressing these important issues. We look forward to continuing to work with the governor in achieving actual positive outcomes in addressing the economic issues facing people of color in Minnesota.
For more on the critical need to address Minnesota's racial economic disparities, check out this video of Prof. Nekima Levy-Pounds and Rep. Jeff Hayden on Twin Cities Almanac.
4/5/11 Meet HIRE Minnesota's New Coalition Organizer Avi Viswanathan
3/30/11 Support the Minnesota Department of Human Rights
Proposed budget cuts and policy changes by the Minnesota State Legislature are threatening to undermine the ability of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) to eliminate discrimination in Minnesota's workplaces!
On Monday, March 28, 2011, the full Senate passed the omnibus judiciary and public safety finance bill (SF958) which included a 50 percent reduction to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights budget.
On Wednesday, March 30, 2011, the House Ways and Means Committee merged the omnibus public safety finance bill (HF853) and the omnibus judiciary finance bill (HF440) into the Senate’s version of the judiciary and public safety finance bill (SF958). This amended bill includes a 65 percent reduction to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights budget. In addition to the appropriations reduction, the budget bill included policy provisions that modify the Minnesota Human Rights Act and limit the MDHR’s focus to “enforcement measures" rather than supporting the agency's broad mission that also includes education and compliance monitoring.
The amended Senate bill is scheduled to be heard on the House floor Thursday, March 31, 2011, at 12 noon.
Thanks much to those of you who called your representatives about this issue or attended the hearings. We will contact you all again to let you know how you can continue to help support MDHR.
3/18/11 HIRE Minnesota Opposes Repeal of Gender Pay Equity (HFs 7/ 698/519 & SF282)
People of color in Minnesota are up to three times more likely than white people to be unemployed. Women are underemployed in many sectors, and underpaid in most. Among the general working population in Minnesota, white women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, Native American women earn 67 cents, African-American women earn 63 cents, and Latina women earn 54 cents on the dollar.
Despite these persistent disparities, bills introduced in the Minnesota House and Senate are attempting to eliminate the responsibility for 1,500 employers – nearly all of our state’s units of local government – to demonstrate that our tax dollars are fairly compensating female employees. The bills would repeal the 1984 Local Government Pay Equity Act (LGPEA), which helps ensure that women who work for cities, counties and school districts are paid fairly compared to their male peers.
HIRE Minnesota believes retaining Minnesota’s Local Government Pay Equity Act, including its 25-year practice of basic reporting on gender pay equity in our local governments, is the very least we can do to ensure that our tax dollars are used to pay people fairly in Minnesota.
Pay inequity is not merely a historic concern. Nationally, African-American women in particular make significantly less than everyone else in the public sector. Their median wage is $15.50 an hour, while the sector’s overall median wage is $18.38 and the median wage for white men is $21.24. And, according to a January 2011 report by the Office of Minnesota Management and Budget, there was still nearly a 10 percent gap in wages between men and women working in many local government jobs.
Over the last 16 years, the LGPEA has helped more than 1,300 women demonstrate that they weren’t being paid equally by their local government employers, and earn fair compensation. Because reporting required by the LPGEA helped detect this problem, local units of government, school districts and other public sector employers were directed to correct those wage disparities. If the law is repealed, we would lose any ability to monitor and track -- much less correct -- gender-based pay inequity in Minnesota.
A repeal of the LGPEA would not only fail women in Minnesota, it would open the door for further infringements against women, low-income people and people of color in our state.
As a coalition, HIRE Minnesota stands against these and any attempts to repeal the 1984 LGPEA. In these challenging economic times, HIRE encourages legislative leaders and others to work to ensure that our tax dollars are used to pay people fairly in Minnesota.
2/2/11 MnDOT releases Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and Workforce Collaborative Report
Today, the Minnesota Department of Transportation released its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) & Workforce Collaborative Report to the Legislature.
A number of HIRE Minnesota leaders spent the past year working with MnDOT, contractors, unions and other community leaders in the collaborative process that resulted in this report. We led the Results and Transparency Workgroup of the MnDOT Collaborative. The mission of the HIRE-led team was to “create transparent reporting systems that allow us to have a shared understanding of the MnDOT workforce, to monitor that in real time, and to evaluate what initiatives are (and aren't) working to meet hiring equity goals…”
This may seem like a numbers game – after all, reports, graphs and committees rarely create jobs – but it was important to us to be armed with data to make the case that women and people of color are underrepresented in building Minnesota’s roads, bridges and transitways.
Happily, all of HIRE Minnesota's recommendations (found on page 29-31 of the report) were accepted. These changes should provide us with much better information in 2011 and beyond about exactly who is getting hired to work on MnDOT projects. A few of the major changes include:
• MnDOT will now regularly report the number of women and people of color who receive construction jobs. • MnDOT will now regularly report the number of DBEs that receive contracts. • MnDOT's web site now reports the hiring goals for women and people of color by project. • MnDOT will provide annual job forecasts for future projects, including goals for women and people of color. • To receive a contract of $5 million or greater, contractors are now required to provide current workforce demographic information, a plan for meeting workforce goals, and workforce projections including projected hours for women and people of color. • Each year, the contractors working on the top 10 projects in the metro area will be asked to report workforce information, plans for meeting workforce goals and workforce projections.
What we are seeing as a result of participating in this project is that by being at the table, driving an equity agenda and bringing our own solutions, a culture shift is taking place within MnDOT.
At HIRE Minnesota’s last coalition meeting, MnDOT Collaborative Project Manager Emma Corrie said, “Changes needed to be made at MnDOT, and you have pushed us to do that...You didn’t just complain, you came to us with solutions. You have transformed the culture at MnDOT.”
We all know there is still work to do. Hiring and contracting goals are still being missed, and people are still out of work. But this report gives us a framework to hold all of the stakeholders accountable.
State Senator Scott Dibble, ranking minority member on the Transportation Committee, acknowledged our good work and the difficult road ahead: "I'm extremely proud of everyone who has been on this journey. Before we call it a national model, let's see more of those results…As has been said by (HIRE Minnesota Founder) Louis King, the best social service program in the world is a J. O. B."
HIRE Minnesota is committed to this work until we see a fair representation of our folks in good, family-sustaining careers building our roads, bridges and transitways. Congratulations to all of the HIRE Minnesota leaders who made calls, came to protests, sat through hearings and put these ideas down on paper. Our tenacity, along with our solutions-oriented outlook, is making a difference.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HIRE Minnesota made a presentation about our state's unacceptable employment disparities at the Black Economic Summit on March 30.
