Closing the gender pay gap, some practical ideas

Several weeks ago I wrote another article on Re-examining gender equality in Pittsburgh Tech. Which led to some interesting discussion over whether the gender pay gap even exists. The argument being that we cannot prove that there is a gender pay gap because no one is analyzing a dataset that controls for all variables (like any real-world study is able to control for all variables ??).? It is true that no one (that I know of) has calculated the gender pay gap while controlling for all other factors, but that does not mean it doesn't exist. It means that we know there is a disparity in wage between men and women that is either

1. caused by a variety of external variables or
2. simply a gender pay gap

I do actually think that the difference we see is caused by a bit of both, but with a little more emphasis on the fact that there are a lot of external variables at play, so I guess there is no argument to be had here. What I see is that, for a variety of reasons, we see highly educated, skilled and intelligent people (mostly women) leaving the workforce mid-career to take care of other obligations ( ? external variables) OR women are leaving the tech field to pursue other careers. So, what can we do to keep women in tech and close the gender pay gap? Several things…

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We can rely on governments and world leaders to fix the problem she says mostly sarcastically… There have been several pieces of recent legislation focused on closing the gender pay gap. In the US, there was the Paycheck Fairness Act which increases civil penalties for violations of equal pay provisions and explicitly outlaws contracts that prohibit employees from discussing salary. There was also a resolution (H.Con.Res.22) introduced in the House to recognize “the disparity between wages paid to men and women, and its impact on women, families, and the nation and reaffirms Congress' commitment to supporting equal pay and to narrowing the gender wage gap.” (Note here that the existence of H.Con.Res.22 reaffirms that there is indeed a gender pay gap) Neither of these are mind-blowing pieces of legislation, but hopefully they are the first steps that will lead to something more.

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In other nations, Australian parliament passed the Workplace Gender Equality Amendment (Closing the Gender Pay Gap) Bill 2023, which aims to reduce the gender pay gap by publishing private sector and Commonwealth public sector employer gender pay gaps—this I find a lot more interesting. Why not just publicly shame companies that are systematically paying women less (she says semi-sarcastically). I’m interested to see if it makes much of a difference, but considering that Australia is ranked 26th and the US is ranked 43rd in the Global Gender Gap Index for 2023, I would guess Australia might have the right idea.

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Speaking of transparency, another idea to reduce the gender pay gap, which is also alluded to by the US legislation above, would be to openly discuss salary. Some states in the US have started to require pay scale information on job postings, but there hasn’t been much work done to lend transparency to current employee salaries. I love that pay scales have been added to a lot of job postings, however, to rely on this alone to reduce the gender pay gap would really be putting a lot of the onus on women to speak up if they think that they are being underpaid, which some people are not comfortable doing. Additionally, it is the responsibility of leaders to ensure fair and equitable hiring practices, not that of individual employees. To do this, companies should take it upon themselves to conduct pay audits to determine if a gender pay gap (or any demographically based pay gap) exists and then formulate a remediation action plan. Then, work on creating a fair compensation system that addresses things like hiring bias, negotiation bias and recruiting bias. A good start to removing bias is to have a diverse group of recruiters and interviewers (heck, you might as well just have diversity be something you strive for in general). Not only do you need to diversify your workforce, but also listen to the ideas and opinions of those people even if they might not be identical to every other idea you hear.

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Another big factor here is that, for a variety of reasons, we see highly educated, skilled and intelligent women leaving the tech workforce mid-career to take care of other obligations. Many times, these people are open to working but can't find positions with flexibility that fit their needs. In other cases, they leave to pursue non-tech careers. In the US, there is no requirement for employers to offer paid maternity leave, and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which entitles employees to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, does not apply to companies with less than 50 employees. In addition, many non-tech careers historically have superior benefits and leave policies. I’d say this is a great place to start when trying to reduce the gender pay gap, whether at the individual company or legislative level. Other ways to increase flexibility and retain female talent are to allow work from home or hybrid work environments, flexible PTO policies, provide child care onsite or funding for child care, ?or even (gasp) a 4 day work week.

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And another thing-- I was debating whether or not to talk about this here, but I am feeling spicy today. Sexual harassment and discrimination are still big issues in tech and men in leadership positions need to do better. A few anecdotes to belabor my point, I have been applying to positions lately and have had several exchanges that were… unprofessional to say the least. Some ideas here:

• If a woman (or anyone) interviews with you for a position, it is NEVER appropriate to ask her out on a date (maybe after the interview process is over, but not during)
• Texting an applicant about non-job related (you know what I mean) topics is NEVER appropriate, especially not wayyyy after work hours
• If you meet someone for coffee or lunch and it is a work-related activity, DO NOT try to kiss them in the parking lot. I mean really, who raised you?
• If a woman negotiates for a higher salary, it’s not ok to rescind the offer and tell your co-workers that “if you need to pay her that much, you might as well hire your (male) friend.” Yep, that one got back to me, I hope you are reading this, and yes, I did inform your boss.

All of this should be shocking to you, but it all happened to me in the past 3 months, in Pittsburgh, in our tech community. Do better. Hold others accountable. Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourselves. We have come too far for blatant sexual harassment and discrimination to be this common, and I am sure that there are others in the same situation that I am in. It is not irrational to think that these experiences could drive someone away from tech or working in general.

Do I think that doing each of these things will eliminate the gender pay gap? Nope, I think it will take this and a lot of hard work from governments, leaders, and individuals to eliminate the gender pay gap, and I think it probably won't happen in my lifetime. But, that's no reason to stop working toward gender pay equality. It will take our work now, to make that change in the future. So, let's do it ??.