| | FEATURED CONTENT |  |  | What to do when every day is Unequal Pay Day
By Selena Rezvani | | Years ago, Howard Stern quipped, “What is the best thing about having a woman boss?” His answer: “You make more money than she does.” And after another year of watching Equal Pay Day come and go, the reality underlying Stern’s clumsy wisecrack still rings true. According to recent Census statistics, women's earnings were 77.4 percent of men's in 2010, based on the median earnings of all full-time, year-round workers. This figure has increased incrementally since the 60s, but has barely moved since 2001. At our current rate of change, women will achieve parity with men in the year 2056. Many of us wonder how this dynamic could persist today. A recent study by Allstate showed that more than a quarter of women believe that – based on their gender – they have been discriminated against in the workplace, including being “denied a promotion, raise or opportunity.” That one in four women feel discredited by their gender is a setback, not progress.
As tempting as it may be to look for one singular source of the problem to lobby (or blame), the issue of the wage gap has many tentacles. Some of these causes are systemic, others are individualistic and behavioral, and still others are cultural and incredibly nuanced. Take for example that there are more women than men concentrated in low-paying functions and industries, often referred to as “pink ghettos.” Many of these jobs have low pay ceilings and less than optimal advancement prospects. Women also “offramp” from the paid workforce more often than men, hurting their long-term earnings and savings. Add to this that the typical American workplace promotes lack of transparency, even secrecy, around pay scales, which only hurts matters further.
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