From last years paid parental leave discussions.
Local women's advocates helped push for paid leave for city employees last year, but four weeks is not enough. City of Seattle

There's a reason April 12 is Equal Pay Day. According to the White House, this is how long the typical woman would have to work—on top of the previous year—in order to make the same amount of money the typical man made last year alone. (It takes even longer for non-white women.)

Seattle continues to struggle with its own pay gap, which a 2013 report found was the worst in the nation. That gap is worse for private sector employees (73 cents on the dollar) than for city employees (90.5 cents on the dollar), but the city is lagging in helping either group.

I've written before about some of the things the city could do to help address this gap:

• Expand paid parental leave for city workers, who currently get four weeks. (Good news: Seattle City Council member Lorena González plans to work this year on legislation addressing this.)

• Create a paid parental leave program for the private sector.

• Offer on-site childcare at City Hall.

• Recruit more women into the city's largest departments, including police, fire, and City Light. One way to do that: Change who gets preference points during the hiring process. I've explained how that would work here.

• Look at the gender equity of companies getting handouts from the city, like street vacations or tax exemptions.

A new issue has emerged, too: secure scheduling for hourly workers. A recent survey from the union-funded group Working Washington found that women were more likely to receive only a week's notice or less of when they were scheduled to work.

When hourly workers get their schedules, according to a survey of 300 workers by Working Washington.
When hourly workers get their schedules, according to a survey of 300 workers by Working Washington. Working Washington

Having little advance notice of your work schedule makes it harder to find another job, go back to school, or arrange childcare (a responsibility that still disproportionately falls on women). The city council is talking some more about secure scheduling right now.

Meanwhile, at Westlake Center beginning at 11:30 this morning, advocacy groups are selling baked goods with pay gap pricing: 77 cents for women, $1 for men. Get down there.