It’s Equal Pay Day! And while we’re not exactly toasting to women being compensated less than men for equal work, it does symbolize how far we still have to go to be treated fairly in the workplace.
In honor of raising more awareness to the (sad) fact that women have been paid significantly less than men for ahem…forever (in the US, we make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes), we’ve compiled a few interesting facts around this day:
- 4 months: that’s the amount of extra time a woman must work to earn the same as her male counterpart
- Red: The color supporters wear to support women and show how much “in the red” we are with our pay
- “Unhappy hours”: In reference to bars’ practice of “happy hours”, some will celebrate “unhappy hours” to protest women’s lower pay in states like Texas and Washington
- Louisiana: The state with the largest pay gap in the US (women earn just 65% of their male counterparts’ salaries there)
- 118 years: The amount if time it would take, according to the World Economic Forum, until the global pay equality is finally achieved
- 79%: That’s also the percentage of their bill women would pay in certain New Hampshire’s bakeries and cafes to make up for the wage gap
- Women of color: For this group, the pay gap is even wider, and to acknowledge this, Equal Pay Day is celebrated in March for Asian America women, in August for African-American women, and in October for Latina women.
Here’s to a day when we’ll really celebrate Equal Pay Day (because you know we’d actually have equal pay, no pun intended)!
To your success,
The Corporate Sis.
