In Honor of Equal Pay Day

Based on my deep internet search (read: last 3 seconds), Equal Pay Day started in 1996. For 20 years, we’ve been “talking” about this topic on this particular day. Of course, the issue has been around much longer. It’s reached a fever pitch recently. Nothing has changed? That’s a sad state of affairs.

I’ve skimmed lots of articles on this topic over the last couple of days. Most provide a state-of -the-union report on the status of women’s pay. Women in Silicon Valley, women in technology, 6 things you need to know about women’s unequal pay and so on and so on.

Then we hear about the outliers. Companies like Mastercard pay every woman the same as men.  Salesforce spent $3million to close the gender pay gap.  Outliers don’t a trend make.

Awareness, education and baby steps are important. But when it comes to creating true, broad change, we need a cultural shift. It’s tied directly to the topic of paid family leave for families with new babies. Bloomerg News agrees.

Is our capitalist society to blame? Who cares who’s to blame. It’s a sunk cost, and we need to ignore it to move forward.

“When making a choice between two options, only consider what’s going to happen in the future, not which investments you’ve made in the past. The past investments are over, lost, gone forever. They are irrelevant to the future.” Seth Godin

Is the reason to pay women equallty not yet compelling enough? Why should company decision makers care? It can’t be about fairness. That’s too subjective. And fair doesn’t impact the bottom line.

Is it the law? It officially is: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that men and women in the same work place be given equal pay for equal work. More laws are on the way. President Obama is working on his legacy.

Why should we care enough to have it make a difference? What will strike the chord? Or will companies continue to take advantage of a cultural situation and individuals until, for whatever reason they can’t anymore? Should women of the world go on strike?

If you are interested in more stats about the gender wage gap, take a look at Hired.com’s published report.