It’s no joke; Equal Pay Day comes the day after April Fool’s Day this year. Equal Pay Day is an international day dedicated to the awareness of the gender pay gap. In the United States, the ratio of female-to-male average yearly earnings among full-time, year-round workers is 80%.
Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. That means women in America have to work until April 2, 2019 to earn the same amount men finished earning on New Year’s Eve 2018. The wage gap is even greater for women of color, women with disabilities, etc.
Equal Pay Today, A Project of Equal Rights Advocates reports in 2019, Asian-American Women earn $.85 on the dollar compared to white men; white women earn $.77 on the dollar; African-American women $.61; Native American women $.58; and Latina women earn $.53 on the dollar to white men, delaying their Equal Pay Day to November 20!
The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) started Equal Pay Day in 1996 as a public awareness event to show the gap between men’s and women’s wages.
We know that as employers if you don’t intentionally include, you will unintentionally exclude. So, take a look at the pay practices in your organization. Complete a compensation analysis and compare men’s to women’s salaries.
And let’s not forget working moms. While pay inequities vary widely by ethnicity, collectively all moms have to work until June 10, 2019—that’s $.69 on the dollar to working dads.
Many communities have held events on previous Equal Pay Days to raise awareness. Women-owned businesses and professional associations, along with labor groups, civil rights organizations, and others committed to pay equality coordinate activities to raise awareness about how to solve wage inequity.
The National Committee on Pay Equity has created a pay toolkit that includes legislation backgrounds, activities to bring awareness to Equal Pay Day, a Proclamation, Sample News Advisory, and more.
And you can wear red on Tuesday, Equal Pay Day, to symbolize that women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay.