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You are here: Home / Featured Home / What’s the game plan to fix the gender pay gap?

What’s the game plan to fix the gender pay gap?

April 15, 2019 By Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

We just celebrated Equal Pay Day – a reminder that women earn on average 81 cents for every dollar, but what’s being done by companies, by lawmakers, by states, and by those in leadership to close the gap?

Actually, quite a lot more recently, most likely spurred on by the #MeToo movement. There’s been a lot of activity in the courts, in Congress, and in companies in the last year or so. Here’s some good news on the gender disparity front:

New pay gap bill: This latest attempt by the feds could close the gap on a national level: In March, the House passed a new bill, The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would ban employers from asking salary history questions and prohibit companies from retaliating against workers who share wage information. The bill still needs to be passed in the Senate before it becomes law.

Correcting salary gaps in court: In March, Vice Media shelled out $1.87 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by some 675 underpaid female employees. The women hired a statistician to determine whether there were any significant pay disparities, after one woman, who had access to internal memos, found “substantial disparities” in the salaries of 35 employees.

The salary history ban movement: Pay equity expert Katie Donovan, who runs Equal Pay Negotiations, started the movement to ban the use of asking salary history questions in job interviews. It all began when she was asked a few years ago, “If you could write policy, what would the policy be?” “I knew that mathematically, we’re never going to achieve pay equity if we’re always using a number from underpayment to determine future payments,” said Katie. So she drafted the first salary history ban bill which became law in Massachusetts, and has now spread to 13 states and 12 cities.

Companies doing the right thing: Starbucks, Cisco, PepsiCo and other companies have reached 100% pay equity and have banded together in the Employers for Pay Equity Consortium to eliminate the gender pay gap nation. On Equal Pay Day, the Consortium of 25 employers signed a pay equity letter stating, “We the undersigned employers believe that business can play a critical role in eliminating the national gender pay gap …”

Need ideas how you can make a difference in disparity in your company? Find out how these 25 employers got it done at their companies at employersforpayequity.com.

 

Filed Under: Featured Home Tagged With: gender pay gap, pay gap, pay inequality, salary history ban

About Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh

“An important attribute of success is to be yourself. Never hide what makes you, you." -- Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo

As editor-in-chief of Woman’s Own and American Woman magazines, I have championed the personal and professional development of women for years. I started my career unsure of my own path and abilities, but I always had a natural curiosity and an interest in words and writing. When selected to launch American Woman as editor-in-chief, after a string of editorial jobs, I was thrilled—and terrified at being responsible for a brand new venture. All I could do was my best, based on my instincts and years of experience. American Woman was a success, offering me things I hadn’t achieved before—the confidence to do public speaking and a journalism award (Exceptional Merit Media award from the National Women’s Political Caucus & Radcliffe College). I hope my insights, now as an editor for Progressive Women’s Leadership, will help you on your own journey to career success.

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