Oregon Sec. of State Fagan releases report on Pay Equity Bill

SALEM, Ore. – Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan says more needs to be done to close discriminatory and systemic wage gaps in the state.

On March 14, the secretary of state’s office released an advisory report from the Oregon Audit Division looking into the impact of House Bill 2005, also known as the Pay Equity Bill, which was signed into law six years ago.

“We’ve made progress,” said Secretary Fagan. “Agencies have implemented best practices that could reduce wage gaps over time and many state employees saw their pay go up during two rounds of adjustments. On the individual level, that matters a lot. However, this report shows at the macro level we’ve still got work to do to address persistent wage gaps in our society.”

The report found that wage gaps in the state workforce still persist. The secretary of state’s office published the following audit results:

Despite progress, wage gaps in the state workforce persist.
Women on average earned 83 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts in 2015. The gap remains the same today. People of color on average earned 91 cents on the dollar compared to their white counterparts in 2015. The gap has increased to 88 cents on the dollar today.
On average, we found white employees received the largest pay adjustments in 2019 and 2022 while people of color received the smallest. The median wage gap for people of color has gotten wider since 2015. Women received more raises than men, but not enough to close the median wage gap. Women of color continue to have the largest wage gaps.
State employees have grown more diverse over the past 15 years.

Download the full report at https://sos.oregon.gov/audits/Documents/2023-11.pdf