In the late 1980's I worked for a local housing authority in another state that administered federal programs providing housing for low-income elderly persons, disabled persons and families. My job was demanding, rewarding and allowed me to provide for my children and myself at a time when I was both the sole wage earner and the sole parent. It also allowed me to convert my humanitarian energies into tangible results.

What I didn't anticipate was that this job would result in a jaw-dropping encounter with the concept of equal pay for unequal work. 

Background

 I took all the new applications for housing. This meant interviewing the long line of people who came to the office every Thursday. All morning and all afternoon I sat behind a desk and listened to everyone's stories. I took documentation, determined applicants' eligibility for various housing programs, explained the different apartments and developments (we never called them projects), and worked very hard to help them maintain their dignity at a tough time.

My duties also included maintaining the waiting list of hundreds of names, notifying applicants when they were close to being offered a place, recertifying eligibility on an annual basis, maintaining records for over 200 families (the occupants of each apartment were referred to as a family, even if they were a family of one), rent collection on-site, showing apartments, documenting reasons and evidence for evictions, managing a working relationship with maintenance personnel and, in an informal capacity, listening to and counseling tenants, sometimes providing referrals to other services. I was the liason with a representative of HUD (federal Department of Housing and Urban Development) during our agency's audit. I was also responsible for finding and successfully prosecuting a $25,ooo case of fraud by a family.

As an "occupancy specialist," I pursued education leading to national certification involving formal classes and a three-hour proctored exam. I completed a 10-week course in public speaking and human relations. Before I took the job, I had a bachelor's degree with honors from a major university.

Inequality Knocks

Now that you have the background, watch as the unreality unfolds.

The office had an additional position as an occupancy specialist. Another woman held that job at a lower pay grade than I, the rationale being that her responsibilities did not include taking applications, maintaining the waiting list and dealing with HUD audits. The workload in that position was much less with one third the apartments and families to manage. About two and a half years into my tenure, she left,  her position became open and, after many interviews, a man was hired. He had no experience in the field of housing.

He was slower to learn procedures and regulations than I would have thought. He was very good at brown nosing people, the executive director and another program administrator, who he thought could help him look good. When I would try to show him better ways to do things he was aloof at best and downright dismissive and snooty when he wasn't at his best. He was nasty when I questioned why he couldn't complete his tasks in the time assigned. He was evasive when asked why he was disappearing for hours at a time when he was alledgedly inspecting apartments.

He held a master's degree in education but couldn't find work in his field. He was a master of time wasting. He was a master of schmoozing. He had responsibility for only one-third the apartments and families that I did, he didn't have to take applications, he didn't have anything to do with maintaining the waiting list, he was not responsible for audits from HUD. But he was paid the same salary as I.

After finding this out, I went to the executive director and asked why. He countered with the logic that people doing the same job at were to be paid the same amount of money and didn't I think that was a good idea. This tactic was designed to evoke all my "sisterhood is powerful" emotions. It was supposed to shut me up.

But I was angry. I didn't want to be shut up. I wanted answers. I came back with the reality of an actual duties comparison that wasn't reflected in grade. The executive director got red in the face. But he didn't back down. I was left to believe that this was equality. A woman could and should be paid the same as a man doing the same job at the same grade.

Conclusions

The fact that we were at the same pay grade obfuscated other ways in which there can be problems with equal pay for equal work. When people do the same work but have unequal pay, that problem is easy to see. But when people do different amounts of work and have the same pay, that's harder to see.

Yes, he had a higher degree—but not in something relevant to our respective positions. I had the more appropriate certification for this activity. And that didn't seem to matter. I was doing way more case work than he was. That didn't seem to matter. As far as the executive director was concerned, we were equals and deserving of equal pay, even though we didn't do equal work in either quantity or quality.

As a result of my confrontation with him, my working relationship with the executive director deteriorated to the point where, several weeks later, I quit the job.

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