Fostering Access, Rights and Equity (FARE) 

The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) was awarded a FARE grant from the US Department of Labor Women’s Bureau to raise awareness of pay equity and equal pay rights among low-wage women workers.

IDOL is partnering with Women Employed on the Illinois FARE Grant project, which will raise awareness of pay equity and pay transparency standards among women workers, particularly low-wage women of color. Centering their needs and voices, the project will strengthen Illinois’ capacity to enforce pay equity and other employment protections, helping realize the intended outcomes of legislative action, inform enforcement strategies and more proactive investigations, and advance gender and racial equity statewide. For more information about the FARE Grant, go to https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/grants/fare.

Women Employed (WE) is an almost 50-year-old advocacy organization that pursues equity for women in the workforce by effecting policy change, expanding access to educational opportunities, and advocating for fair and inclusive workplaces so that all women, families, and communities can thrive. Their mission is to improve the economic status of women and remove barriers to economic equity, with the bold social goal of closing the wealth gap at the intersection of gender and race.

Since their founding in 1973, they’ve been involved in nearly every major advance for working women, like advocating for the Family and Medical Leave Act and the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, helping write the rules that made sexual harassment illegal, working to pass the Illinois Equal Pay Act and No Salary History Law, Chicago’s paid sick time law, minimum wage increases, and fair scheduling ordinances. But their work is not done. Right now, they are advocating nationally and in Illinois for pay equity and strengthened workplace protections. And they are partnering with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) to raise awareness of pay equity and pay transparency standards.