Hafer questions Tom Wolf's gender employment record on behalf of Schwartz | Blogh

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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Hafer questions Tom Wolf's gender employment record on behalf of Schwartz

Posted By on Tue, May 6, 2014 at 2:21 PM

Former Pennsylvania Treasurer and state Auditor General Barbara Hafer told reporters today that Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Tom Wolf needs to prove that there isn’t a gender wage gap in his company -- although she doesn’t have evidence that one exists.

Hafer, who is backing Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz in the race, also criticized Wolf for having just two women on the 19-person management team of his York, Pa. kitchen-cabinetry company.

“Voters deserve the whole record and the full story,” Hafer told reporters. “What we know is that the Wolf Organization, the board of directors is all men and ... of the 19 people on his management team, he only has two women."

“He himself talked about this internal audit, done every three or four years ... to measure his own equality," Hafer added. "So let’s see the audit. He ought to be proud of it.”

Wolf spokesman Mark Nicastre fired back in an email that “This latest attack by Allyson Schwartz is ridiculous, and Allyson Schwartz knows it.”

Nicastre said that of six executive hires made by Wolf since he returned to run the company in 2010, two have been women. Two have been African American.

"Managers in the company are tasked with improving diversity and there are women serving in important roles throughout the organization," Nicastre said. “The company also does internal reviews to make sure all employees across the company are paid for equal work.

“As the father of two professional daughters, Tom Wolf takes issues of equality very seriously.”

City Paper asked Nicastre if Wolf would be opening up those audits for inspection. He said, “The Wolf Organization cannot release employee pay information or internal reviews of this nature due to the personal and proprietary nature of the documents.”

But Nicastre said Wolf has worked to “promote female leadership ... throughout the community.” Specifically, Nicastre said Wolf “was on the search committee that brought [Pamela] Gunter-Smith to York College as the first female President. Tom was the chair of board when the first female CEO came to [public radio and TV broadcaster] WITF. Tom was also the President of the board of the Housing Council of York when they hired their first female Executive Director. As President of Better York, he named the first female Executive Director."

Additionally, Nicastre says that Wolf and his wife Frances have long supported female political candidates over the years, contributing more than $200,000 to state and national female candidates. Among those contributions: more than $50,000 that Wolf and his wife Frances have given to Schwartz’s own campaigns for state Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

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