Originally published on Slate.com
A new study shows women pay more and get less back.
Electrician Erica Scott clearly remembers the day she gathered with her co-workers for an early morning start at a South Slocan Dam construction site in Canada. Her boss asked if anyone was certified to drive the Zoom Boom, a heavy-duty lift designed to withstand Canada’s winters. Scott says she raised her hand amid a group of silent men, but the assignment went to a young man, barely 19, who was not certified to operate one. She recalls that after he crashed the Zoom Boom into a fence, she threw her hard hat on the ground and demanded that her certified skills in Zoom Boom operation be put to use. The team handed her the keys.
For Scott, who is based in Hawaii and has worked as a journeyman and electrician since 1999, this was just one example of what she characterizes as an unfair work environment in construction. Another is pay. Electricians earn tiered incomes based on their level of experience and have access to more work depending on their level of certification, but Scott found men were often tiered up before women with commensurate experience and certifications—and research shows men are hired more often than women, increasing their earnings. But, she says, “I was a single mom for most of my working career. There was nothing else I could do that would come close to the amount I was paid as an electrician.”
