There’s a new rule in Massachusetts that requires employers to hire at least two women for every male on their payroll.
That includes lawyers and social workers, as well as sales and marketing professionals.
But while it’s a step in the right direction, many say the law’s intent is to limit the number of female workers in a particular occupation.
The state has long been the world’s leader in the gender wage gap.
That gap has grown over the last decade.
As of 2014, women earned an average of $1.63 for every dollar earned by men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But for the past decade, that gap has narrowed, to an average annual wage of $10.70.
This year, the law will require employers to pay women at least $12 an hour, even though that’s still below what most women earn, according the Boston Globe.
In 2018, there were 9,000 female law students in Massachusetts.
“The goal here is to encourage companies to be more flexible in how they hire, to offer women opportunities, to support women’s advancement, and to be responsive to the needs of their female employees,” said Rebecca Siegel, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which filed a lawsuit to challenge the law.
“That’s a very difficult goal to meet.
That’s one of the reasons that the Supreme Court has put forth in recent years the need to expand access to paid family leave.”
In 2014, the Massachusetts legislature passed legislation to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.
That increase was the first statewide increase to $10 an hour.
But it didn’t go far enough, and the state’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high.
That has caused the state to lose nearly 1,500 jobs since 2014.
The latest unemployment rate for women in Massachusetts is 3.5%, according to data from the Bureau and the Massachusetts Office of Labor Economics and Statistics.
The rate for men is 2.3%.
This is not to say that women aren’t being discriminated against.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that women are paid less than men for similar jobs in some industries.
The agency has also reported that employers have been underreporting the number and type of women who apply for positions.
It’s also important to note that the wage gap isn’t a one-size-fits-all problem.
For example, some people earn more than others because they’re in certain occupations, or because they have more experience or more skills.
The Boston Globe noted that some lawyers earn more money than their male counterparts because they tend to be involved in more complex legal cases.
“I think that is a really hard thing to quantify,” said Mary Jo Fox, the executive director of the Center for Workforce Research at Georgetown University.
“It’s a complicated thing to measure, because it depends on the person, and how much you know about the person.”
Fox said it’s important to look at the entire picture and not just focus on the specific cases that have been brought.
“We’re really focused on the larger picture, not just focusing on one specific situation,” she said.
“If you look at these types of cases, it’s not the only one, but there are other things happening.”
It’s important that companies take steps to improve the gender pay gap in their workforce, said Jennifer O’Neill, the chief executive officer of Equal Justice Works, a women’s rights organization.
“When you look beyond just one person, we have to start thinking about the larger society, and there are systemic issues, and that’s something we should be working on,” she added.
Women are often the first ones to go when a company does decide to change policies, Fox said.
For her part, O’Donnell is still trying to get her resume out there.
She’s hoping to be able to find a job with an equal number of men and women.
But she’s also trying to be selective in her search.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she told the Boston Herald.
“So many of these women are coming to us because they want to be represented by a woman.
They just don’t have the resources.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.