GENDER EQUITY SERIES UPDATE: STARK TREASURY AND STARK RECORDER "BEST OF THE BUNCH" OF ALL STARK COUNTY DEPARTMENTS OF GOV'T?

While the Stark County auditor and the commissioners haven't fared that well in improving the pay and the opportunity of Stark County women in government employment, it is a strikingly better picture that one sees in looking at the numbers during the period April, 2014 through June, 2015 for the Stark County recorder (Rick Campbell) and the Stark County treasurer (Alex Zumbar).

 

The foregoing graphic for the recorder's office has an imbalance of women to men.  Ideally, for these types of mostly administrative jobs there is no reason why one gender should predominate over the other. 

When it comes to engineering jobs (e.g. Stark County Sanitary Engineer and the Stark County Engineer) an imbalance of men over women is understandable given America's socialization and education infrastructure that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) type jobs will largely be filled by men.

But for out-and-out administrative jobs, there should be no difference.

One has to believe that any significant disparity between the genders is a conscious effort by a succession of department heads to focus on one gender over another to hire.  And that focus has nothing whatsoever to do with education/socialization or competence but rather is in the order of arbitrary employment decisions by department heads.

Moreover, who gets hired for higher paid positions.

In the recorder's office, although women outnumber men by a large number, the average salary of men (fulltime positions) is at $40,220 whereas women on average come in at $31,184.

Alex Zumbar has done much better than Campbell on overall pay equalization and providing opportunities for women to be more equally sprinkled throughout the various pay grades of the department.

Zumbar has his fulltime men employees at an average of $35,345 as compared to the women being at $35,103.

Quite an achievement, no?

Another thing too.

Remember that in the case of the auditor's office and in some of the administrative and facilities positions under the commissioners' watch, men were brought in as new hires at substantial salaries over and above any women currently on staff or promoted disproportionally to women.

Not so with Zumbar.

In fact, from April, 2014 through June, 2015 Jaime Allbritain was rewarded for a 20% increase ($50,003 to $60,008) for her outstanding work in the treasurer's office.

Stark Countians would do well to recall that for a short period during the period that local attorney and civic activist Craig T. Conley calls "Zeiglergate," Allbritain was installed as "the" Stark County treasurer.  And she vied with Zumbar for the Stark County Republican Party nod to be the party's candidate for treasurer in the November, 2012 election.

In June of this year, the SCPR will once again visit the gender employment record of both Campbell and Zumbar.

A Hats Off! to Alex Zumbar for the gender employment balance he has achieve as Stark County auditor!

UPDATED "GENDER EQUITY" SERIES (GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT) "THE STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS"

This blog is the second in a series of updates on The Stark County Political Report April, 2014 series analyzing whether or not Stark County government has a good track record in achieving gender equity in its employment practices.

On Monday (LINK), The Report did an update assessment of Stark County auditor Alan Harold's record.

Harold has only been auditor for a little over five years.  While much inequity flowed under the bridge before he ever set foot in the auditor's office, yours truly figures that five years is enough time for him to have made some progress in righting the wrongs that he inherited.

Sad to say but the SCPR thinks Harold (held in high regard overall as auditor [see blog on his #2 ranking as on the the SCPR "Top 10 List" of Stark County Political Subdivision Elected Officials]) needs to improve in promoting women in his office to higher paying, more responsible position within his office.

Today, we look at the Stark County commissioners (LINK to webpage) and their 2015 performance as measured against the base year 2014.

Later this year, the SCPR will update this series to show what if any progress in gender equity the commissioners have made from June, 2015 through June, 2016.

Here are the charts:

STARK COMMISSIONERS: ADMINISTRATION

Interesting, no?

The spread:

• between the "on average" women's salary grew from $44,307 compared to "on average" men's $66,305 in 2014
• to
• between the "on average" women's salary grew from $37,670 compared to "on average" men's $86,523 in 2015

The commissioners deserve credit for promoting one woman from within the administrative staff so that she gained 19% over her former salary.

Another female employee was paid more (9%)  in 2015 over 2014 but because as a part-time employee she worked more hours.

The primary reason the spread grew was that the commissioners hired a man to be the county's human resources director at $76,502.

How ironic is that?

STARK COMMISSIONERS: FACILITIES

Other than 16.67 increase for the facilities manager position (2015 over 2014), the 2015 graphic is a much better picture for the facilities payroll.

That the commissioners found it necessary to go outside the existing employee ranks to find a new manager is an indictment of there being in place a program to bring a lower ranking  (pay wise) employee (and God forbid, perhaps even a female) to the top spot.

Well, Olson, do you really expect that a woman could be in charge of county facility (mostly buildings) maintenance, rehab and the like?  After all, this is a man's world isn't it?

STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS:  BUILDING INSPECTION

The above numbers seem to indicate that even being a union member does not help the women of Stark County Building Department have a roughly similar payroll in terms of "on average pay."

If one includes the department head Angela Cavanaugh, then women do considerably better than men.

However, as the SCPR is led to believe, Cavanaugh is the ONLY non-union employee in the department.

So it is not an "apples to apples" comparison to include her.

The reality is that notwithstanding supposed union protection women other than Cavanaugh are relegated to (relative to inspector/examiner jobs) low paying clerical positions.

In this segment of today's analysis, The Report does not get into comparing increases in 2015 over 2015 inasmuch such in the case of the Building Department is controlled by union contract except, of course, for Cavanaugh.

One final note.

Yesterday, the SCPR got involved in a discussion with readers of this series of blogs about the blue (men), pink (women) graphic scheme devised by the SCPR to show "apparent" inequity in county government on pay equivalency and opportunity for promotion.

(Paraphrased discussion)

"You know, Martin, it is an oversimplification to show gender pay comparisons in blue and pink." 

Response:   

"Of course, it is.  The SCPR understands that gender inequity has been many years in the making." 

"And there are a number of factors which make it difficult to achieve equity.  A number of those factors are American society wide in the sense that family and institutional (e.g. education) structures of socialization are not keeping pace with the expectations of the modern woman." 

"Nonetheless, it is the responsibility of government to provide a quality of leadership that is capable of mitigating the "difficult factors" on the pathway now inculcated in American law towards achieving what is fair in the public workplace."

Accordingly, the SCPR will continue to annually assess how well Stark County leadership does incrementally (year by year) in improving gender equity in Stark County government.

VOLUME 10: GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN STARK CO GOV'T. IS THE CITY OF CANTON THE VERY WORST?

The Stark County Political Report has published some pretty startling number in this ongoing series examining whether or not there is evidence of "gender discrimination" in Stark County government.

Volumes 1 through 9 of this series focused on county government.

Here are links to those blogs:

• Volume 1, April 21, 2014
• Volume 2, April 28, 2014
• Volume 3, May 5, 2014
• Volume 4, May 12, 2014
• Volume 5, May 19, 2014
• Volume 6, May 27, 2014
• Volume 7, June 2, 2014
• Volume 8, June 9, 2014
• Volume 9, June 16, 2014

Today, the SCPR begins this blog's focus on the city of Canton.

And it is not a very pretty picture.

But before getting into the specifics of the Canton male/female equity picture, The Report diverts a bit to add a personal note.

As the father of three daughters The Report (one of five boys in a family of eight, growing up) has gotten a "up close and personal" look of how in the 1970s, 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s and, yes, even in 2014 gender discrimination flourishes in America, Ohio and indeed our own Stark County.

I can spin quite of number of tales about the gender discrimination the Olson girls have experienced during their lives.

As their father, I have stood toe-to-toe along side them "fighting the good fight" on behalf of fairness to more than half the American population.

Of course, I am far from finished with this fight.

And it is important for the well being of our great nation, state and county that men join in the fight to fully embrace and include 51.5% (Stark County) of our population.

Everyone who reads this blog needs also to read Gail Collins' epic work on how America has "historically" mal-treated women.

In coming volumes, the SCPR will delve into the specifics of the city of Canton (a bastion of supposedly "liberal" Democratic Party politics) treatment of women.

The SCPR's initial take on Canton government's performance on gender equity is that Canton makes Stark County departments of government look like gender equity progressives.

To whet your interest in what is to come with ensuing SCPR reports on Canton, take a look at this graphic: