CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION _________________
title
A RESOLUTION re-affirming the City’s commitment to gender pay equity and expressing the City’s intent to join 100% Talent, a regional Gender Pay Equity Initiative, as a founding member, and to help implement the Initiative as a means to strengthen gender pay equity in Seattle and the region.
body
WHEREAS, racial and gender-based disparities in pay and opportunities for employment and advancement persist across the Seattle region; and
WHEREAS, in 2013 a National Partnership for Women and Families report revealed that women in the Seattle region earned 73 cents for every dollar a man earned and the gap for women of color is even wider; and
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Council recognize equity in the workforce as fundamental to ensuring employers and employees maximize their potential and that the actions of local government contribute to the health and well-being of everyone in Seattle; and
WHEREAS, the Mayor and City Council enacted Resolution 31523 to identify where racial and gender-based disparities exist, the causes for those disparities, the intrinsic relationship between race and gender that contributes to gender inequity and changes that should be made to address barriers to equity; and
WHEREAS, also in resolution 31523, the Mayor and City Council recognized the leadership role the City should take in addressing gender wage equity and committed to working with regional partners in the public and private sector to develop a regional gender pay equity initiative; and
WHEREAS, in 2015 the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Women’s Funding Alliance launched 100% Talent, a regional gender wage equity initiative, similar to efforts in the City of Boston and other municipalities, to engage private sector employers in closing the gender wage gap; and
WHEREAS, the goal of the initiative is to have five-hundred companies in the Seattle region pledge to take three voluntary actions to help close the gender wage gap in the region within five years; and
WHEREAS, the City of Seattle will sign on to the initiative compact, joining Odin, Moss Adams, Deloitte, Inn at the Market and Ben Bridge Jewelers as founding partners, agreeing, as all signees do, to:
1. Identify gender equity issues, collect data internally and understand the root causes of inequity within the organization;
2. Implement at least three best-practice solutions and monitor progress;
3. Share best practices and success with other organizations;
4. Invest in 100% Talent; the amount and value to be determined solely by the City; and
WHEREAS, the City of Seattle, as a member of 100% Talent, will receive benefits such as training, best-practice sharing and other tools to support gender-equity work; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:
Section 1. The City of Seattle supports 100% Talent as a regional gender equity initiative and makes the 100% Talent pledge to help close the gender wage gap through the following actions:
A. The City of Seattle will serve as a founding member, joining Odin, Moss Adams, Deloitte, Inn at the Market and Ben Bridge Jewelers as founding partners, agreeing, as all signees do, to:
1. Identify gender equity issues, collect data internally and understand the root causes of inequity within the organization;
2. Implement at least three best-practice solutions and monitor progress;
3. Share best practices and success with other organizations;
4. Invest in 100% Talent; the amount and value to be determined solely by the City.
B. To the extent permitted under RCW 49.60.400, the City of Seattle will identify and commit to implementing at least three of the thirty-one recommended best practices identified to close the gender wage-gap:
1. Demonstrate that gender diversity is a high priority.
2. Reorient workplace culture to emphasize results over “seat-time.”
3. Offer training to acknowledge and overcome implicit bias.
4. Publish policies that foster an inclusive culture.
5. Create an initial applicant screening that is free of gender bias.
6. Seek diversity in the applicant pool and evaluate candidates as a pool.
7. Enlist diverse evaluators in hiring.
8. Evaluate starting salaries for new hires.
9. Conduct regular compensation evaluations for employees of all levels.
10. Conduct negotiation training for employees and managers.
11. Regularly train managers on conducting effective performance evaluations.
12. Publish employee performance philosophy or principles in a manner easily accessible by employees.
13. Evaluate causes of attrition among women, including mothers and non-mothers.
14. Offer paid family leave.
15. Offer onsite or subsidized childcare.
16. Offer childcare referral or back-up childcare services.
17. Create and generate awareness of programs that confer employee schedule control, including flex programs.
18. Train managers to manage a flexible workforce.
19. Mentor and sponsor women for leadership positions.
20. Provide structural support to move women up the talent pipeline.
21. Actively recruit women to executive level and board positions.
22. Include women on senior search committees.
23. Achieve equitable gender representation on compensation committees.
24. Support initiatives that expose young girls to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, the trades and other fields where they are underrepresented.
25. Support initiatives that connect girls and young women to female role models, mentors and sponsors in fields where they are underrepresented.
26. Support the expansion of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) high school and college courses.
27. Evaluate female student perceptions of your industry.
28. Support outreach and training programs for women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, the trades and other fields where they are underrepresented. Create recruiting initiatives for women in underrepresented fields.
29. Seek gender diversity among investment partners.
30. Showcase successful women entrepreneurs.
31. Design incubators (organizations oriented toward speeding up the growth and success of startup and early stage companies) and co-working spaces to support entrepreneurs with families.
32.
Adopted by the City Council the ____ day of ____________________, 2015, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this________ day
of ______________________, 2015.
_________________________________
President ___________of the City Council
The Mayor concurred the _____ day of _______________________, 2015.
_________________________________
Edward B. Murray, Mayor
Filed by me this ____ day of ________________________, 2015.
____________________________________
Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk
(Seal)