Today marks how far into 2019 the average American woman must work to earn what the average American man earns in the previous year, based on 2017 Census data (adjusted slightly to avoid holidays and weekends).
It’s always a sobering day, no matter how you look at it:
- We’re already a full quarter into the year. A full quarter! That means women have to work through Q1 to catch up to the previous fiscal year.
- The average American worker receives 10 days of vacation each year. Women would have to work through vacations for 6-7 years to catch up with men.
- It takes until spring time – a whole season – for women to finally catch up to what men earned by practically the start of winter (give or take a few days there).
There’s also the fact that April 2nd is the calculation for the average woman. When you adjust for other factors such as ethnicity or parenthood, it’s even more sobering.
Asian-American Women
5 March at 85¢
Note: Figures vary widely in this demographic depending on specific ethnic backgrounds.
White Women
19 April at 77¢
All Moms (compared to all Dads)
10 June at 69¢
African-American/Black Women
22 August at 61¢
Native American Women
23 September at 58¢
Latinas
20 November at 53¢
More on Equal Pay Day
First things first, if you’re available next Thursday, we’re co-hosting a conference call with our friends at Fairygodboss on negotiating your salary. We hope you can join us (and feel free to pass it along!).
11 April at 2pm EST / 11am PST
We also recently had a conference call with Steven Huang, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Culture Amp, who talked with us about some of the research around how becoming a parent can affect mothers and fathers differently.
In recognition of Equal Pay Day, should you choose to sign up for The Dot, our yearly membership for D&I leads and enthusiasts, please enjoy a 50% discount on any membership tier using the code EQUALPAY.
Conference call recording (available for non-members today only!).
We’ve written a lot on the subject in the past. Here are a few of our favorites.
Women have invested through the traditional investing industry, but it hasn’t done a very good job of investing in women. Here’s a better way, says Sallie Krawcheck.
On average, Black women have to work 19 months to earn pay equal to that earned by men in a single year (12 months).
Four things you can start doing right now to close the pay gap between men and women, by CEO of The Female Quotient, Shelley Zalis.
When 60% of women in tech think that the company they are working for right now is paying their male counterparts more than them, that’s a problem.
Want more bang for your buck, better efficiency, and higher dedication? Hire a mother.
Resources on the Gender Pay Gap
A new report from Glassdoor shows that the unadjusted gender pay gap is decreasing, but that the data isn’t that simple.
How can a leader truly endorse gender pay equality if the company’s female employees are paid less than men?
Data released by 10,000 large UK companies in 2018 showed that salary gaps still exist in favour of men for all sectors. There’s clearly still a long way to go.
