Using Transparency To Close The Gender Wage Gap

Pat yourself on the back, Boston. On average, Bostonians have the best educated women of any major city, and on average, women here earn 83 cents to each dollar earned by men. That's better than the 77 cents to the dollar nationally.

But of course, it's still not one-to-one. So at both the city and state level, significant efforts are underway to close the gender wage gap. And they're all aimed at increasing transparency when it comes to what men and women are paid.

In Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh is gathering salary data from more than 60 companies. The city will break down the data based on gender, race, job category, and length of employment, and promises to make the information public this summer.

At the state level, legislators are also pushing a new bill that would require employers to post base salaries for open positions, and prevent companies from punishing employees who talk about their salaries openly. But will it work? How important is greater transparency to closing the gender wage gap?

Victoria Budson, executive director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, which tweets @wappphks.

Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She tweets @CHSommers.

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