Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day is the official date when women's wages "catch up" to the earnings of their male counterparts from the previous year, representing how much longer it takes for women to earn the same pay as men. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), "Despite the Equal Pay Act [enacted in 1963], the wage gap persists; women are typically paid just 80 cents on average for every dollar paid to men — and that number has barely budged in a decade."

If you are appalled to know that women are only paid 80 cents to the dollar, you should also know that the pay gap is even worse for Asian American women, African American women, Native American women and Latinas. In fact, it takes well into the summer and fall for women of color to earn the pay that their male coworkers earned in the previous year.

While no woman wants to celebrate the day (in fact, we loathe that it's still necessary) the AAUW has a few ideas of things you can do to honor women on Equal Pay Day, which can help bring an end to the holiday altogether:

1. Contact your elected officials to urge them to act on Equal Pay Day, and encourage members of Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

2. Host an "unequal" bake sale or (un)happy hour at your place of business, where men have to pay full price, while women get a discount to offset the pay gap (i.e. women would get 20% off for making 80 cents to the dollar).

3. Contact your local media and ask them to cover Equal Pay Day. If you're a writer, submit letters to the editor and op-eds to a variety of publications covering women's issues.

4. Host an Equal Pay Day event in your community, such as a salary negotiation workshop. Recruit financial experts to speak on financial literacy at your event, or organize a panel of women to discuss fair pay. Invite city, state, and federal officials to participate.

Have any other ideas on how we can help close the wage gap? Contact info@freerangeoffice.com to pitch your women's advocacy event and we might be able to host you as part of our women's salon series.