Albuquerque city officials announced Monday that 19 companies have met new standards on equal pay for women.
The new city ordinance established a 5 percent preference for businesses bidding for city contracts if they can prove they pay women within 10 percent of what they pay men. The idea appears to be catching on - officials in San Francisco, New York City, and Phoenix, have contacted Albuquerque about creating a similar law.
Mayor Richard Berry says businesses want to do the right thing, but sometimes they just need an incentive.
“ I can almost guarantee if you talk to some of these businesses once they started looking at this they were either already being equitable, or they found out 'Hey listen, we found something here we need to fix' and they went ahead and proactively fixed it,” Berry said.
Berry and City Councilor Diane Gibson plan to make amendments to the ordinance next year to increase requirements with the goal of eliminating the wage gap entirely.
