Updated 2 January 2012. When she works at Flathead County’s trash container site in Columbia Falls, according to the Montana AFL-CIO, which reports that working full time, the woman is paid approximately $11.00 per hour. Working only a couple of days a week, the man is paid approximately $15.50 per hour. There may be some issues of seniority involved, but this sure doesn’t look like equal pay for equal work.
If you agree this is a prima facie case of wage discrimination, the AFL-CIO recommends sending love letters, so to speak, to Flathead County Commissioners Jim Dupont, Dale Lauman, and Pamela Holmquist, and the county’s public works director, Dave Prunty.
Comment received 2 January 2012:
Mr. Conner,
Get the facts before you shoot off at the mouth. Your article about a woman receiving less pay than a man at Flathead County has no facts. The man is employed as a truck driver for the waste department and thus has more pay because of DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS. He is only temporarily working when the woman has time off (which is only a few hours a week). As far as Im concerned, the county taxpayers should not pay for anyone to man a dump site. What a waste of $$$. I periodically read your articles but now have less respect for you because now I don’t trust your comments.
Duane Dierenfield
Reply from James Conner:
The facts in my post are attributed to the AFL-CIO. Mr. Dierenfield does not source his assertions, or tell us anything about himself (is he the driver doing temporary dumpster duty?). But assume for the moment that he is right, that the guy doing relief duty is paid as a truck driver, not as a dumpster site traffic director. There’s still a difference in pay for identical work (he’s not driving a truck while he’s directing traffic) that, from a standpoint of economic justice, seems unfair on its face regardless of gender issues.