Years ago, feminist activist Gloria Steinem was asked to write an essay on women to go with a Time magazine cover story. When her check arrived, Steinem's agent told her it was half the amount that men were paid for their freelance work.

Steinem wrote to the editor, explaining the discrepancy. "In response," she said, "he sent me a Gucci purse."

It was "my awakening that categorical underpayment was a problem," Steinem told a roomful of supporters brought together by the New York State Pay Equity Coalition. The coalition brought Steinem to Albany to support passage of the New York State Fair Pay Act.

The bill, now lacking majority party sponsorship in the Senate, would require equal pay for work of equal value for those employed in job titles where women and people of color predominate.

"Nurses and teachers take the biggest punishment," Steinem said.

"And a majority of our members are women," responded Kathleen Donahue, NYSUT vice president. NYSUT is a member of the pay equity coalition.

The measure would require that employers use the same tool — a job evaluation system — to compare all jobs regardless of race and gender predominance. It calls for a point factor system covering such issues as education and experience, accountability, management responsibilities, human relationship skills and working conditions.

The act would also make it unlawful to discharge an employee for disclosing or discussing wages.

Lynn Romanick, president of the predominantly female Baldwinsville Education Support Professionals Association in Onondaga County, has challenged the low wages paid to aides and assistants for years.

"These workers are front-line people, spending the majority of their day with students," she said. "In many cases, they're single parents, solely responsible for their families.

Unfortunately, in many districts, the starting wages are at a poverty level.

"NYSUT has supported fair pay legislation for a number of years," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. The union is urging Senate Labor Committee Chairman Joseph Robach, R-Rochester, who spoke in favor of pay equity at the event, to move the bill forward.

Through collaborative efforts with affiliate United University Professions at the State University of New York, delegates at NYSUT's 2005 convention committed the union to support the principles of the Fair Pay Act.

— Liza Frenette and Bernie Mulligan