Equal Pay Day is a day meant to raise awareness about the wage discrepancies that exist between males and females in the workforce. The month, April, represents how far into the year women must work to earn as much as a man made in the previous year, and the day of the week, Tuesday, represents how far into the next week women must work to earn what a man made in the previous week. You’ve probably already heard the term “78 cents for the dollar” and this is no joke – women earn, on average, 78 cents for every $1 a man earns.
In 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity originated Equal Pay Day as a public awareness event meant to illustrate the unfair advantage that men have in the workforce. Despite all the efforts and progression that have been made, we have still not come very far. You might be thinking “well couldn’t it just be possible that these men are earning more because they’re working more and have more experience?”. Although that’s a great question to ask, these numbers represent men and women with identical backgrounds, and who work just as much as each other.
The wage gap is even more significant between white men and women of color. For every $1 a white male earns, black women are paid just 64 cents, and Latina women earn a mere 56 cents. For transgender women,
There are a lot of factors that come into play here, but the main problem is the negotiation gap. Men are twice as likely to negotiate their salary than women, and when women do actually negotiate, they are seen as “demanding”. Another problem that women face is the hiring bias. Women are subject to discrimination against their age, and life stage much more than men are. When interviewing for a position, hiring managers usually take into consideration whether or not the candidate has children, wants children in the near future, or is already pregnant. Because it is often assumed that women are the primary caretakers of their children, hiring managers assume that women who want both a career and a family will be unable to fulfill the same duties and responsibilities as their male counterparts.