In response to Opinion: Gender pay gap hurts women, families and communities, Potsdam woman says Donna Seymour brings up a complaint concerning a “Pay Gap” between men and women. The Equal Pay act of 1963, as well as the equal rights act that followed, insures that women get the same pay for the same job as men. If a woman today is not getting paid the same as a man doing the same job in a business, that is illegal. She can sue and easily win in court any disparity she has suffered due to an employer failing to pay her for doing the same job as a man.

I agree there is a nation-wide cumulative gap between men and women, but that has nothing to do with pay discrimination. Some career choices obviously offer more money. Hazardous and labor intensive jobs like welding, oil rig workers, bricklayers, deep water fishing, and others like them offer much greater pay, which skews the overall statics of earning power of men vs. women. If more women choose to enter these fields, they to can also earn the same pay, and close the overall pay gap between men and women. That many choose not to, favors men who thus appear to earn more on a national average than women.

Regarding single working mothers in St. Lawrence, it is obvious they are at a disadvantage. But attributing unfair income equality due to gender bias due to the circumstances as being a single parent is simply not a valid measurement. Anything in one’s personal life, be they a man or a woman, that hinders their career, be it illness, divorce, lack of education or job opportunities cannot be used to accuse there is a nation-wide proactive discrimination to keep women from being paid equally as man.

St. Lawrence suffers one of the highest unemployment in all of New York. Much of this “Pay Gap” we suffer, is attributed to the fact we just don’t have any viable industries here. Our needs are great for the many people here that cannot find a job, heat their home, have their disabled children’s needs taken care off. Our county already receives significant financial aid from Albany.

There simply are not any jobs up here to support with local taxes those who need help. That is a major factor that impacts the economic struggles of single working mothers, as well as men, in our county, and not due to an unequal pay gap. If this problem is to be addressed, then New York has to remove its barriers of red tape and expenses that prevent businesses to come here.

Our state rates in the bottom in the US as the least-friendly for inviting businesses to set up shop. Resolve that, and I believe the pay gap will be fixed as more job choices are made available for both men and women.

Ron Shirtz

Rensselaer Falls