The pay disparity between men and women in the United States is a complex and persisting problem. Despite all the attention it’s received, the pay gap has only closed by four cents in the past decade. At this rate, men and women won’t achieve wage parity for decades to come. In the next event of Meetup’s Dismantling Social Injustice series, we will learn about the ongoing issue of the gender pay gap and its severity, as well as the pay gap for people of color.
Watch Shannon Williams (she/her), Director of Equal Pay Today in a discussion with moderator Gwynn Krueger (they/them), Director of Customer Experience at Meetup. Participants will learn about historical and structural disparities and factors such as pay secrecy, occupational segregation, pregnancy leave that contribute to the pay gap. From there, we will learn the necessary actions we must take to help and support wage equity.
Main Takeaways/Resources:
- When we say the “gender pay gap” we’re speaking about the gap between what men are paid and what women are paid and refers to the average annual pay of all women who work full-time year-round compared to the pay of men, and these numbers come from US census data. And when we think about who was most affected by this gap, it’s clearly women. But what we also know is that the gap gets much wider as you also factor in race and ethnicity.
- Often, people are told that they can close the wage gap on their own by being transparent with their co-workers about how much they get paid. And while that is helpful, and we do encourage folks to do that, that’s not really fair. It puts the burden on individual workers. We need changes on the whole company level, on the state and government level, and at the federal level. We need the government to really start requiring employers to report how much they pay their employees. Some large companies are starting to do this.
- Resources:
- How you can get involved and get more information: https://www.equalrights.org/
- How you can see what laws are in your state: https://policyhub.equalrights.org/
Top Q&A Questions:
- How can we combat the partisan divide on this issue and encourage politicians to change their thinking?
- Find the organizations in your city that are working with us. Call your legislators, find out which legislators are not for transparency for collecting this data. Call your senators, tweet at them. Start small, ask your own company. Nothing really beats boots on the ground.
- Is it true that when men are hired for jobs that have historically been dominated by women, like nursing, that men often get paid more than women?
- Yes, it is true. Even in those female-dominated jobs, men are still paid more than women.
- If we suspect we are being underpaid compared to our colleagues, what steps can we take to uncover and fix this?
- You can address your employer. I know there’s the fear of companies retaliating against you for doing that. Please feel free to feel like you can contact the legal advocacy organization that focuses on fair pay and equal pay.
Last modified on June 23, 2021
