From Deseret News archives:
Huntsman relents — he signs 'Pay Day'
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had balked at signing the declaration, which urges Utahns "to recognize the full value of women's skills and significant contributions to the labor force" and encourages businesses "to ensure women are being paid fairly."
But Saturday, Huntsman signed it along with three other declarations.
The governor's concern, according to his staff, was that the organizations requesting the day were only able to produce a single declaration signed by a past administration. Huntsman, they said, likes to see how his predecessors handled an issue.
"You don't want to sign something you can't live with," the governor told reporters Monday, noting his office had to review the statistics cited in the declaration about how much women earn compared to men.
Huntsman said he was "caught totally off guard" by the concerns raised by a representative of Business and Professional Women of Utah and the other organizations requesting the declaration about his apparent reluctance to sign it.
"We do a little bit of due diligence," the governor said. "It wasn't more complicated than that."
The woman who raised the concerns, Shauna Scott-Bellaccomo, said she was pleased the governor signed the declaration. "That's great," the state employment counselor said. "We're so happy that's he's decided to join us and support us."
Only a few paragraphs from the sample declaration provided by Scott-Bellaccomo were left out of the one signed by the governor, including a paragraph stating that "fair pay strengthens the security of families" and enhances the economy.
Also left out was a paragraph explaining that Tuesday "symbolizes the time in the new year in which the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year."
The declaration does state, according to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau, women working full time in 2003 earned 76 percent of the amount paid to men working full time, "indicating little change or progress in pay equity. . . ."
Other statements in the declaration that was signed include the fact that the wage disparity costs the average American woman and her family an estimated $523,000 in lost wages, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions.
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