The Utah Women & Leadership Project invites you to join us for our fourth Women’s Leadership Forum of the academic year. It is a panel discussion (see bios below) focused on understanding the wage gap issues in Utah. The gender wage gap is a persistent concern in the United States, where women make about 82% of what men make for comparable work. And the numbers in Utah are more extreme, where a woman earns approximately 71 cents for each dollar a man earns. In fact, year after year, Utah is consistently near the bottom of national rankings in terms of gender pay equity. Although the existence of the wage gap is indisputable, many try to discount it or attribute the entire gap to “women’s choices.” In reality, the wage gap is deeply complicated, with dozens of contributing factors, including educational attainment, recruiting practices, negotiation success, hours worked, occupational segregation, and unpaid care work, not to mention unconscious bias and plain-old sexism. Our panel of experts will discuss some of the most important contributing factors, dig deeper into how the gap varies by race and other demographics, and evaluate major efforts to reduce the wage gap, including both private and public initiatives. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating discussion of this critical issue, one that affects not just women, but families, communities, our businesses, and the state as a whole.

COME EARLY FOR REFRESHMENTS AND NETWORKING!

Special thanks to the Business Resource Center at Utah Valley University for sponsoring this Women’s Leadership Forum.

PANELIST BIOS

Katie Hudman is an attorney with Employers Council, a membership association providing employment law and HR services to employers. Her passion is preventing a company from being sued. To that end, she has spent much of her career training company leaders and HR professionals on various employee management principles such as effective employee discipline and documentation, as well as legal compliance obligations under employment laws covering topics such as discrimination, harassment, family and medical leave, overtime pay, drug testing, and disability accommodations. Prior to joining Employers Council, she worked as an attorney at the law firm Kirton & McConkie. Hudman has a bachelor’s degree of political science and a double minor in communications and legal studies from Weber State University. She also has a law degree from the University of Utah College of Law and has PHR and SPHR certification credentials from HR Certification Institute.

Carrie Mayne is the Associate Commissioner for Workforce and Institutional Research. Formerly, Mayne was the Chief Economist and Director of Workforce Research and Analysis at Utah’s Department of Workforce Services, where she was employed for 14 years. She and her staff produced a wide array of tools to aid the public in understanding the state’s workforce. Mayne is a member of the Utah Economic Council and the Governor’s Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Utah and is working toward completing her doctorate in the same field. Her areas of expertise include labor economics, econometrics, and statistics.

Erin Jemison is the Director of Public Policy at the YWCA Utah where she focuses solely on women’s issues—advocating in the areas of economic advancement, racial justice and civil rights, and health and safety. She also oversees Real Women Run at the YWCA, a collaborative nonpartisan initiative to empower women to participate fully in public life and civic leadership, including training on running for elected office in Utah. Formerly, Jemison was the Executive Director for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault where she was employed for 5 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Hobart & William Smith Colleges and a master’s degree in public administration from Montana State University-Bozeman.