This month is Women’s History Month, yet ironically it is also the month where we would have to work THIS much longer into the new year to earn what men did by the end of 2023. What? Another 40 days for the same pay? Ouch! Equal PayDay was March 12th, which, while earlier than in past years, shows how pay disparity impacts women’s lives. Women who earn 84 cents on the dollar either have to work 6.4 hours longer a week for the same pay, or more likely, settle to earn less over their lifetime, which is what is happening at every end of the salary disparity spectrum.
And since 40 percent of women are the primary breadwinners, earning 84 cents on the dollar that men make, that means in order to bring home the same amount of money you would have to work longer hours. And that means that kids would see less of their Mom, who has to work longer for equal pay, or settle for less money for the same work.
Wage disparity doesn’t get a lot of passionate reaction (compared to other freedoms women now have fight for!) But time is the one commodity you can never get back. Women often shrug off the fact that we earn 84 cents on the 100-cents that men make. But when you think of it in terms of time, and explain you have to stay at the office 16 percent longer, or an average of 6 and a half hours a week more than men to earn the same money as men? That could mean you miss dinner with the kids, or not get to take half day Fridays, while men leave to go play golf or hang with family, while women have to stick around another 6.4 hours per week to make up the difference? No thank you.
Time is Money and Women Get the Short Stick
Talk about earning money, and women often demure. Talk about working longer hours for the same pay, and you have our attention. Well, Happy Women’s History Month. Instead of celebrating past accomplishments let’s get pissed. Or. at least get paid!
We work harder than the guys, and get paid less. And women of color get paid even less, according to Pew research. In 2022, black women earned 70% as much as white men and Hispanic women earned only 65% as much on average than white men in the exact same job. This is just wrong, and there are things we can do to counter it.
It’s been Six Decades Since Equal Pay Became Law, at least on paper.
You would have thought that by signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law, John F. Kennedy would have insisted that it be enforced. Imaging the Voting Rights Act, or any other equality laws being ignored, not enforced, and allowed to go unheeded, after all these decades. That federal law makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex.
Specifically it states: “To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.” Just about every single industry could be taken to task for not complying. Now, however, there are Salary Transparency laws on the books in some states, but the Federal Salary Transparency bill introduced in 2023 in the House has not passed. Still, that transparency bill is only a partial step. Parity is the goal.
States Are Picking Up the Slack
Back in April 2, 2019, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York took to the Senate floor to mark Equal Pay Day and to urge her colleagues to pass legislation that would help to finally close the gender wage gap in the United States. That day was Equal Pay Day, or the day in the new year when the salary of the average woman catches up to the salary earned by the average man in the previous year.
Okay, so we nudged Equal Pay Day a couple of weeks earlier in the past five years. It’s not enough to think that our work here is done. Now ten states including California and New York have enacted laws to require salary transparency which is helping matters. Many job boards such as Glassdoor have made a practice of posting salary ranges, but the ranges are often so big as to be meaningless. But the federal law requiring Salary Transparency was introduced in 2014 and failed to get passed.
So what to do? every day, in our own lives?
While earning 16 percent less than men in the EXACT SAME JOB is egregious, most women shrug it off until we think of it in time equity. Women have to work 16 percent longer hours for the same pay as their male counterparts in equivalent jobs. So when you think about wanting to make it home for dinner with the kids, or you are putting in extra hours on a Friday, imagine getting all that time back, and not having it impact your paycheck. That’s equitable, that’s parity and it’s definitely worth fighting for.
Don’t blame women, either. Even when women negotiate harder than men, we still don’t come up to parity. Forbes has reported on the fact that research has revealed a that the old cliche that men are better negotiators, is simply not true. The researchers found that women were more likely than men to ask for more compensation, but they still earn less. Men just walk in the door and hiring managers throw out a higher number at them from the get go.
Consumers Have the Power to Hold Companies to Account
Consumers could hold companies to account. What if we as consumers told our favorite companies (the ones that make money off of the dollars we spend — or the 84 cents we spend!– had to show their payrolls and prove they pay women equally?
If the government won’t require companies to pay men and women equally then we as the household shoppers could do so. Few companies have made promises to pay men and women equal wages. If they did, we would promise to support them by consuming their products. And it’s not just sexism at play. Women of color earn even less, so not only is there sexism but also racism baked into the system.
To this I would add agism. As I get older and wiser, I also get passed over for jobs that I apply for that are well below my skill set, abilities or pay grade. I still have all my faculties, energy, motivation, ambition and desire to work hard and knock it out of the park, daily, as I did in my 20s, 30s and 40s. But now I also bring to the party a sense of calm, so that when the fires start to get sparked, and everyone starts to freak out, I know how to manage the problem and put out the fire. It’s all about creative problem solving.
Crisis management often requires everyone to take a deep breath, step back from the edge and think, collaborate and get smarter by doing some research or fact finding. Cooler heads really do prevail. If everyone is at DefCon 5 at work, over a problem that needs creative thinking and not panicking (or the blame game) to solve, then no one can lead the troops out of a sticky situation. That’s where experience helps. That’s where I do my best work.
Four Ways to Fight Pay Discrimination:
- Start your own company and hire other women.
- Inquire about salary and benefits at your current job.
- Ask about working a shorter work week.
Let’s Start Our Own Companies.
Here are the deets: Starting a business is not a crazy idea. But you may need to save up, and take an initial pay cut, so be prepared for a runway of about two years in order to get back to making enough money to support yourself on the new business. It’s doable!
There are over 14 million women-owned small businesses in the US, accounting for nearly 40% of all businesses in this country! Women-owned businesses now generate nearly $3 trillion in annual revenue and employ some12 million people! Throughout Women-owned businesses bore the brunt of the burden during the pandemic, Forbes reports, Forbes reports. However, since the recovery started, women-owned-businesses are driving the economic recovery.
If you can’t get hired for what you should get paid, hire yourself. Take a side gig and grow it into a main gig. Monetize your skills. Charge people for what you do for free. Financial or career coaching? You can start your business based on whatever expertise you have built. Start small and grow. Be confident about your abilities, even if others don’t share your vision. If 14 million other women can do it, you can too.
Pay your staff (men and women) equally. One CEO of a tech company told TAP that she does not negotiate salaries. It’s “best and final” offer for salaries and benefits every time. Why? “Because men will always ask for 20 percent more and women will usually take what you give them,” she says.
Inquire about salary and benefits at your company.
Under Executive Order 11246, you have the right to inquire about, discuss, or disclose your own pay or that of other employees or applicants. You cannot be disciplined, harassed, demoted, terminated, denied employment, or otherwise discriminated against because you exercised this right. Ten states like California and New York have passed Salary Transparency laws that require companies of 4 or more employees to post the salary range and benefits for every open position. Talking about money is not rude, uncouth, impolite or un-lady like. It’s not the hiring manager’s money. But it will be yours!
Women Avoid Talking About Money. That’s a Mistake.
The first step when you are fighting the gender pay gap should be to ask others in similar jobs around your industry how much they are making. It’s not rude if you are doing market research for negotiations or job searches. This advice is from Sara Laschever, co-author of Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiating to Get What They Really Want, in an interview in Time magazine in 2019.
Sallie Krawcheck, co-founder and CEO of women’s investment platform Ellevest, a digital financial advisor for women she launched in 2016, described salary negotiations for women as a “double-bind” in the same Time magazine story. “When we are too soft we get rolled over and when we get too aggressive we’re labeled bitches. It’s this narrow, narrow knife’s edge we must dance along to be uncontroversial.”
She advises that women go to the boss and bring a tone of collaboration, but be armed with data of what you bring to the table and deals or revenue you have helped drive.
“I found what works for me to be fact-based, unemotional,” she told Time in 2019. “Approach it as a collaborative problem to be solved. Because if you are not paid what you should be, the company risks losing you.”
Celebrities Have Spoken Up for Equal Pay
Jennifer Lawrence and others have advocated for equal pay for women in Hollywood. All the way back in 2015, when Patricia Arquette, took to the Oscars stage to accept her statuette for best supporting actress in “Boyhood” she passionately advocated for equal pay.
Arquette’s powerful words drew cheers from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez in the audience. She declared, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”
If only.
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