National Equal Pay Day
Despite many gains and improvement, women around the world receive significantly less pay than their male counterparts. Learn about why and how to change it.
Position your organization as an advocate for pay equity and workplace fairness by launching transparency initiatives, wage audits, or employee resource programs on Equal Pay Day.
- Share your company's pay equity commitments and audit results to build trust with female talent
- Host a panel or webinar on closing the wage gap featuring HR leaders and employees
- Launch an internal campaign encouraging employees to discuss compensation transparently and report inequities
- Partner with women-focused nonprofits to amplify the message and demonstrate corporate social responsibility
Early in the 20th century, women around the world began taking a stand, but even though the battle has been going on for years, it still isn’t over.
In 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equity in the USA decided that it would be a great idea to promote a day dedicated to bringing awareness of the ongoing issue with the gender wage gap. One interesting fact about National Equal Pay Day is that its date changes not just year to year, but country to country.
National Equal Pay Day is set on the day in the year when a woman would have finally caught up with her male contemporaries’ wages from the previous year. As this varies each year, and in each country, they don’t always line up.
The pay gap is actually caused by a number of factors, but they are factors that are almost always directly related to the issues and choices for women that have been created by society.
One of the most prevalent factors in deciding who gets a job when two applicants are equally matched in all other aspects is gender, with men getting preferential treatment for positions when this comes up.
This is particularly true where the job in question is considered high pressure or high risk. All of this comes together to result in women earning just 82% as much as men in the same position.
This means that, on average, a woman has to work until March 24 of the following year to receive the amount of pay that her male counterpart earned in the previous year.
If this were merely an American problem, it would still be worth addressing. More concerning, however, is the fact that this issue exists in many of what are considered first-world countries, including Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore.
All over the world, the unequal treatment of men to women is a serious problem. Strides have been made in recent years but there is still very far to go.
It’s time to get involved and make companies aware of the need for equality in pay!
Take a Poll and Fight for Pay Equity
National Equal Pay Day is best celebrated by helping to raise awareness of the ongoing struggle women have with getting equal pay for equal work. Take a poll of a variety of contemporaries and find out what their wages are, and discover if they are getting paid equally for the same job. If any imbalances are found that are clearly gender-related, take it to a union rep or employer and ask how this wage difference was determined and see about getting it remedied. Don’t do this alone if there are others that share the issue. Make it a company-wide (or at least location-wide) activity to help overcome this injustice. National Equal Pay Day is an opportunity to have wage grievances heard. Now get out there and fight!