Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON ― The White House announced Friday that 29 new private sector companies ― including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Target, Visa and General Motors ― have signed a pledge committing to closing the gender pay gap for their employees.

“Women employees at Apple earn one dollar for every dollar male employees earn,” Apple said in a statement. “We’re now analyzing the salaries, bonuses, and annual stock grants of all our employees worldwide. If a gap exists, we’ll address it.” 

Women working full time in the United States earn an average of 79 cents for every dollar men earn, according to the most recent Census Bureau data. The gap is much worse for African American women, who are paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white men. 

While some of the gender wage gap can be attributed to other factors, such as women leaving the workforce periodically to care for children or choosing lower-paying careers, several recent studies have suggested that pay discrimination is still a big problem. A 2014 survey of recent college graduates found that women and men with the same college major and job had an unexplained 7 percent wage gap just one year after graduation. That gap grew to 12 percent over the course of a decade. 

Another study found that male doctors with the same “age, experience, specialty, faculty rank, and measures of research productivity and clinical revenue” were paid about $20,000 more a year than their female colleagues. 

Democrats in Congress have tried four times to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would impose harsher penalties for pay discrimination and require employers to be able to show that wage gaps between men and women are based on factors other than gender. But Republicans continually block those efforts, criticizing the bill as bad for business and a handout to trial lawyers.

President Barack Obama is now trying to do what he can to close the wage gap without the help of Congress. He signed an executive order in January requiring businesses with 100 employees or more to report their pay data ― broken down by race and gender ― to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And the White House Equal Pay Pledge, which more than 50 companies have signed, engages private sector employers in the effort to reduce the national gender wage gap. 

“Towards that end, we commit to conducting an annual company-wide gender pay analysis across occupations; reviewing hiring and promotion processes and procedures to reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers; and embedding equal pay efforts into broader enterprise-wide equity initiatives,” the pledge says. “We pledge to take these steps as well as identify and promote other best practices that will close the national wage gap to ensure fundamental fairness for all workers.” 

Pinterest, PepsiCo, Amazon, Airbnb, Spotify, and 23 other businesses had already signed the pledge. The more than 50 signatories took the opportunity to outline the many steps they are taking beyond equal pay to ensure equity for women in the workplace. Patagonia, whose CEO is a woman, goes above and beyond for its female employees:  

We believe women shouldn’t have to make the unnecessary choice between family and career and they can grow a career at the same pace as a family. At Patagonia, thanks to onsite child care, nursing moms are a few feet away from their babies versus miles apart. New moms and dads take paid time off to bond with and care for infants and families can eat breakfast and lunch together daily. We have an equal number of women and men at every level of the company, including among executive positions and the boardroom. Women and men are paid equally for comparable work. All of these things amount to a work environment where 100 percent of women return to work from maternity leave, 100 percent of dads take paid time off from work to bond with their new babies, and the business thrives as a result of the working families we support in our business.

Obama applauded these companies for leading by example. “We should encourage more businesses to join them,” he said. 

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WhatsApp betrayed its long standing commitment to privacy when the company announced the app will now share user data with Facebook for the purpose of selling ads. But existing users have only 30 days to opt out.

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A new device has landed on Kickstarter that aims directly at the bicyclists out there that use a bicycle to get around. The device is called the Shoka Bell and it can work like a bike bell only instead of little dings and rings, it uses an app to provide different ringtones to alert cars and pedestrians that you are … Continue reading

PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Hopes of finding more survivors faded on Friday three days after a powerful earthquake hit central Italy, with the death toll rising to 267 and the rescue operation in some of the stricken areas called off.

Sniffer dogs and emergency crews continued to scour piles of rubble in Amatrice, a picturesque town popular with tourists which was leveled by Wednesday’s quake and where 207 bodies have been retrieved so far.

But in nearby villages, such as Pescara del Tronto, rescuers pulled out after all the missing had been accounted for.

Italy plans to hold a state funeral for around 40 of the victims on Saturday, which will be held in the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno.

A day of national mourning was announced, with flags due to fly at half mast around the country for the dead, who include a number of foreigners.

The civil protection department in Rome said nearly 400 people were being treated for injuries in hospitals, 40 of them in critical condition. An estimated 2,500 people were left homeless by the most deadly quake in Italy since 2009.

Survivors with nowhere else to go are sleeping in neat rows of blue tents set up by emergency services close to their flattened communities.

“It was quite a tough night because you have a significant change in temperature here. During the day, it is very, very hot and at night it is very, very cold,” said Anna Maria Ciuccarelli of Arquata del Tronto.

“There are still aftershocks preceded by booms and, for those of us who have just lived through an earthquake, it has a great effect, particularly psychologically,” she said.

More than 920 aftershocks have hit the area since the original 6.2 magnitude quake struck early Wednesday.

“We have removed the last bodies that we knew about,” said Paolo Cortelli, a member of the Alpine Rescue national service who helped to recover about 30 bodies from Pescara del Tronto.

“We don’t know, and we might never know, if the number of missing that we knew about actually corresponds to the people who were actually under the rubble.”

The foreigners who died in the disaster included six Romanians, a Spanish woman, a Canadian and an Albanian. The British embassy in Rome declined to comment on reports that three Britons, including a 14-year-old boy had died.

The area is popular with holidaymakers and local authorities were struggling to pin down how many visitors were present when the quake hit. The Romanian Foreign Ministry said 17 Romanians were still missing.

Italy has a large Romanian community, and some of the victims were resident in the country.

FUNERAL

The first funeral of a victim was held in Rome on Friday, for Marco Santarelli, the 28-year-old son of a senior state official, who died in the family’s holiday home in Amatrice.

“I cannot find the words to describe the grief of a father who outlives his own children. Perhaps there are no words,” Marco’s father, Filippo Santarelli, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Hardly a single building was left unscathed in Amatrice, which was last year voted one of the most beautiful old towns in Italy and is famous for its local cuisine.

“Amatrice will have to be razed to the ground,” said mayor Sergio Pirozzi.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has declared a state of emergency for the region, allowing the government to release an immediate 50 million euros ($56 million) for the relief work.

He has promised to rebuild the shattered homes and said he would also renew efforts to bolster Italy’s flimsy defenses against earthquakes that regularly batter the country.

“We want those communities to have the chance of a future and not just memories,” he told reporters in Rome on Thursday.

Italy has a poor record of rebuilding after quakes. About 8,300 people who were forced to leave their homes after a deadly earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009 are still living in temporary accommodation.

Renzi declined to predict when the homeless might be rehoused. “This is not about setting challenges and making promises. We need the pace of a marathon runner,” he said.

Most of the buildings in the area were built hundreds of years ago, long before any anti-seismic building norms were introduced, helping to explain the widespread destruction.

Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini said all 293 culturally important sites, many of them churches, had either collapsed or been seriously damaged.

Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. Almost 30 people died in earthquakes in northern Italy in 2012 while more than 300 died in the L’Aquila disaster.

(Writing by Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella, editing by David Stamp)

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The Trump campaign is getting less-than-rave reviews. Americans’ preferences on immigration policy are divided. And there’s no consensus on how gender is affecting Hillary Clinton’s chances. This is HuffPollster for Friday, August 26, 2016.

CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN ADVANTAGES ARE APPARENT TO VOTERS – Jon Reid: “Hillary Clinton has run a better presidential campaign than GOP rival Donald Trump, according to a majority of voters in a new Morning Consult poll. The national survey, conducted after the Trump campaign’s third major leadership change this year, shows that 51 percent of voters say Clinton’s campaign is performing better overall….Broken down by political party, a majority of Republicans (54 percent) and Democrats (79 percent) say their party’s respective nominee has run a better campaign. But the difference between the two parties is significant. A small majority of Republican voters say the Trump campaign is doing well, while most Democrats are happy with their nominee’s campaign. Only 8 percent of Democrats say Trump’s campaign is doing better than Clinton’s.” [Morning Consult]

Trump could be leaving votes on the table by not campaigning well – John Sides: “Trump is being vastly outspent in advertising and is limited essentially to whatever field organization the Republican National Committee can provide — which will be exceeded by Hillary Clinton’s, much as Romney’s was exceeded by Obama’s. How much will this cost him on Election Day? Probably the best estimate comes from a recently published piece by political scientists Ryan Enos and Anthony Fowler. They show that the effect of the 2012 presidential campaign on voter turnout was quite large, about 7-8 points overall.” [WashPost]

MANY AMERICANS SUPPORT BORDER CONTROL AND A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP – Pew Research: “The public is divided over many aspects of U.S. immigration policy. However, when asked about the priorities for policy toward illegal immigration, more Americans say better border security and a path to citizenship should be given equal priority than favor either approach individually. The new national survey, conducted August 9-16 among 2,010 adults, also finds that a large majority (76%) says that undocumented immigrants are as hard-working and honest as U.S. citizens, while 67% say they are no more likely than citizens to commit serious crimes…. Overall, 29% of the public prioritizes ‘creating a way for immigrants already here illegally to become citizens if they meet certain requirements,’ while (24%) say the focus should be on ‘better border security and stronger enforcement of immigration laws.’ However, when given the option, a 45% plurality does say that both should be given equal priority.” [Pew]

Trump supporters generally favor tougher enforcement – Carroll Doherty: “Nearly half (48%) of Trump supporters say the priority for policy to deal with illegal immigration should be stronger law enforcement and better border security. Just 10% say the priority should be creating a way for undocumented immigrants to become citizens if they meet certain requirements. But about four-in-ten (41%) say both of these approaches should be given equal priority. When Trump voters who give equal priority to both are asked to choose just one, a majority overall comes down on the side of stronger law enforcement and better border security: 78% say this should be the priority, compared with just 19% who prioritize a path to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally. Among Clinton supporters, opinions are nearly reversed: 80% say a path to citizenship should be the priority, while 19% prioritize tougher law enforcement and better border security.” [Pew]

AMERICANS ARE SPLIT ON HOW GENDER AFFECTS CLINTON’S CHANCES – Catherine Lucey and Emily Swanson: “According to a new poll from the Associated-Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, most Americans see [Hillary] Clinton’s gender playing a role in the campaign, with 37 percent saying her gender will help her chances of being elected president, 29 percent arguing it will hurt her, and 33 percent thinking it won’t make a difference….Overall, 75 percent of Americans say they think men and women make equally good political leaders, while 17 percent think men make better leaders and 7 percent say women do. Still, about a quarter of Americans, including nearly half of Republicans and more than half of Americans who have a favorable view of Donald Trump, think a female president would not be tough enough to handle a military crisis or a terrorist attack. Men and women are about equally likely to say a woman is tough enough to handle those scenarios facing a president….Despite gains made by women in elected office, just over half of Americans say gender discrimination remains a problem for women in politics, while about 3 in 10 feel the opportunities are about the same. About 2 in 10 think women have more opportunities.” [AP]

POLLING MODE AFFECTS CLINTON’S NUMBERS, NOT TRUMP’S – HuffPollster: “In telephone polls conducted by live interviewers, Clinton averages an 11-point lead over Trump in the HuffPost Pollster average. She’s approaching 50 percent, whereas Trump is struggling below 40 percent. These polls are averaging only 5.5 percent undecided and 4.4 percent for other candidates. Polls conducted either online or using automated voice technology over the telephone, without a real person on the other end of the line, tell a different story. In these polls, Clinton averages just under 44 percent support, a 5-point drop from the live telephone polls, while Trump loses less than 1 percentage point, still sitting at about 38 percent. That 5 percent who supported Clinton in live telephone polls, but not in these other polls, seems to have gone to the ‘undecided’ column. In online and automated phone polls, undecideds increase by 5 percent, growing to over 10 percent of voters….Since it’s Clinton’s support that increases when undecideds are pushed in live telephone surveys, the polls indicate that undecided voters tend to lean more in Clinton’s direction.” [HuffPost]

HUFFPOLLSTER VIA EMAIL! – You can receive this daily update every weekday morning via email! Just click here, enter your email address, and click “sign up.” That’s all there is to it (and you can unsubscribe anytime).

FRIDAY’S ‘OUTLIERS’ – Links to the best of news at the intersection of polling, politics and political data:

-Nate Silver looks at what we know about Hillary Clinton’s margins in blue states. [538]

-A majority of voters think Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson should participate in the presidential debates. [The Hill]

-Some GOP operatives are concerned about the weakness of Donald Trump’s data operation. [Yahoo]

-Mingnan Liu describes an experiment on listing different combinations of candidates in the Republican primary polls. [SurveyMonkey]

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.