Eagle County woman speaks out against employer for pay discrimination: "No one wanted to take responsibility for it"

It is Equal Pay Day and the message across the United States is simple: Women deserve equal pay for equal work. 

The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the gender pay gap hasn't changed much in two decades. 

Nationally, women earn 87% of men's full-time wages. For instance, if a man makes $60,574, their woman counterparts earn $48,381.

In Colorado, women only make $0.83 to the $1 of what men make. 

On Tuesday, a resolution was adopted in the State Senate to help ensure this doesn't happen in Colorado. Some women might even get backpay for years they made less money. 

Michelle Siemer is one of them, who says she's been fighting to make what she deserves for years. She formerly worked at one of Colorado's largest employers in Eagle County.

"I don't want to say where I worked," she said. "I sent a notice to HR in 2015 and at that point, I was considered an assistant manager. I managed multiple facilities, an arcade, an ice rink, a valet." 

She also handled payroll and noticed she was making less than her male colleagues, even some who reported to her. 

"I was training their male management staff. I started asking, 'Why am I not in a senior manager position?'" she asked. 

"After COVID, my manager was having a hard time keeping other managers and he just rolled all of the departments into one and said why don't you just absorb this," she said. "I doubled my staff and doubled my responsibilities. I think a lot of it was like, we will just give her these tasks and she won't be able to complete them, and we won't have to worry about it. Every hoop I was given, I jumped through. And I was like, fix it! No one wanted to take responsibility for it." 

Siemer then considered quitting. 

"But I couldn't do that. I had three kids, a mortgage, daycare bills. The concept of 'Why did you stay?" is I had to. You feel like you don't have any other choice when you have a family," she said. 

So, she started documenting conversations with her manager. Siemer says she never got answers or a raise. She shared one of those phone recordings with CBS News Colorado anchor, Mekialaya White. 

 "I don't understand how me as a manager I'm getting paid less," she could be heard saying.  

A male voice replied, "It's a massive company and trying to look at things big picture and get it done takes a really long time." 

Siemer used those recordings as part of testimony last month to support Senate Bill 23-105, to expand on Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

When asked if she felt like it was personal, Siemer responded saying, "I can only hope that they would want to do the right thing but the ability to empower the people they had in charge is where it failed."    

She says women being underpaid is all too common and so is not speaking up. 

"We have to stop being quiet and start being loud and not being afraid of the stigma that's attached to it," she said. 

Siemer has also started an online fundraising and awareness campaign called" Epic Fail Equal Pay for Equal Work". 

Her former employer shared the following statement: 

"We want to be a great place to work for all our team members. Vail Resorts has a long track record of advancing gender diversity and equity. We are proud to have created a culture that encourages and enables growth opportunities for women at all levels. Here in Colorado, four of our five resorts are run by women, numerous leadership roles director-level and above across our company are held by women, and our Vail Resorts Board of Directors has achieved gender parity, with five female and five male board members.

To show we're committed to a great employee experience, we have taken direct action, including investing in higher pay, offering comprehensive benefits such as free access to mental health support, expanded reproductive health support, and providing leadership development for seasonal frontline teams. We value the contributions of every dedicated team member – we cannot achieve our mission without them. We want to ensure all our policies and practices remain rooted in our core values and will continue on that journey."