Equal Pay Is Not Enough to Move Us to Equity

More companies are embracing Equal Pay Day with new initiatives and policies that attempt to close the pay gap between women and men.

It’s not enough.

It’s not enough to look at whether women and men with the same title are getting paid equally. That only gives us one tiny data point in a sea of important data points that paint a complete picture of women’s parity at work. Progressive workplaces are digging deeper. They’re asking bold questions. They are unafraid of finding the real truth.

They are looking at things like: How likely are women to get promoted vs. men at any level? What’s the churn rate for women vs. men? Are women leaving at a higher frequency than men, and if so, why? Is it for better, higher paying jobs? Is it for promotions? Or are women making lateral moves? Did the women employees who left have male managers or female managers? Did those managers have experience managing diverse groups? And were women actually getting paid for all of the work they were doing? Are women being asked to do more than male counterparts but not being compensated or promoted commensurate with that additional work?

If companies aren’t asking these questions– then they’re not doing enough. Not if they want to move the needle. Not if they want to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces and revel in the massive benefits of that success. Most companies are not doing enough.

Asking the deeper questions will mean looking at pay through an intersectional lens. How often are women getting promoted vs. how often are men getting promoted? What about older women? What about black women? What about Latinx women? What about gay women? Looking intersectionally at our data gives us new insights – not just about pay but about inclusion and equity. It gives us clues about where there may be biases in our systems and processes and allows us to fix those systems and processes. 

Glassdoor just reported that the adjusted pay gap in the U.S. has shrunk to 4.9% down from 6.5% in 2011. We love progress but we also know these numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Until we can support women in ways that enable them to take the jobs and pursue the promotions and feel empowered and get equal pay – then we won’t truly have achieved parity. A recent study by IBM said women wouldn’t achieve leadership parity in the workplace until 2073. A study by The World Economic Forum last year said globally it will take 200 years to bridge the gender pay gap.

This is unacceptable.

At AnitaB.org, we focus on women in technology. And we’re not willing to wait until 2073 or 2219 for women technologists to rise within and influence workplaces at equal rates as men. Our goal for women technologists is that they make up 50% of the workforce by 2025. It is our moonshot and we know it’s possible. But to achieve that goal – we’ll have to dig deep – pay is certainly one place to start.

We know it’s possible to move more quickly toward balanced workforces and equitable treatment of diverse employees for the companies that ask themselves the hard questions and make parity in both pay and leadership a priority. Just look at companies like software consultancy ThoughtWorks. This company is one of the shining stars in our Top Companies For Women Technologists program for the last three years. ThoughtWorks has programs to train and advance new hires and actively recruit from outside the computer science field to seek enthusiastic learners with the attitude, aptitude and integrity that sync with the company’s core values. The reward for this work is a high percentage of women in technical roles including their CTO Dr. Rebecca Parsons who has said that we must act with urgency to build diverse workforces if we want to create better technology for the future. 

The equity of women – starting with true pay equity – will have a profound influence on women’s well-being, our technologies, and our global economies. While equal pay is one critical step in the right direction, we must do more.

We must advocate for ourselves, sponsor women, lead change and push our own companies to hire, retain and promote women. We must not accept status quo processes and policies that don’t move the needle toward true equity. And we must not stop until we have true parity at all levels and across all types of jobs.

Until then, this is not acceptable. We should all expect better. We must all do better.