City of Chicago Still Demonstrating Gender Inequity

Refusal to Give 911 Police Supervisors Equal Wages Could Result in Costly Arbitration

CHICAGO, May 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The City of Chicago continues to contribute to the ugly national problem that women earn less money than men for doing the same job.

Nearly half of the city's Supervising Police Communications Operators (SPCOs) are female, and not one of the city's Supervising Fire Communications Operators (SFCOs) is female. On average, 911 police supervisors earn only 84 percent of what their counterparts in the fire department earn. SPCOs have an average salary of $6,744 per month; SFCOs make $8,048 per month.

The city has been in contract talks with the SPCOs since 2008, but its refusal to budge on this issue could force Teamsters Local 727 to file for arbitration, a lengthy process that could cost the city thousands of dollars.

Despite these glaring wage and gender disparities, the SPCOs and SFCOs have nearly identical job descriptions and minimum qualifications. Both sets of workers:

• Function as first-line supervisors.
• Oversee communications operators who receive and process 911 emergency calls.
• Dispatch police (SPCOs)/fire or emergency medical units (SFCOs) to the scene.
• Must have three years experience as communications operators.

SPCOs and SFCOs also work in the same physical office space, so the disparities are visibly obvious each day they go to work.

"It makes you crazy to think that the third-largest municipality in the country is condoning this discrimination. It's just unacceptable," said Porcha Melton, who has been an SPCO since 2005. "We're viewed by our bosses as not worthy of the same recognition and compensation as the fire supervisors, people who work in the same room as us that we have to look at every day. It really causes morale to sink to the sewer."

According to the latest census statistics, women in the United States earned only 77 cents on the male dollar in 2008. In fact, women's wages have increased just a half-cent on the male dollar for the past four decades.

"For us to do the same job and not be compensated equally is so unreasonable," said another SPCO who wished to remain anonymous. "That's the main issue: we just want what's reasonable."

John T. Coli, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 727, agreed.

"The fact that these hardworking men and women are being paid less for doing the same work is unsettling," Coli said. "Our organization is committed to doing whatever it takes to put an end to this egregious wage disparity."

Teamsters Local 727 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents more than 100,000 men and women in Illinois and Indiana.

SOURCE Teamsters Joint Council 25