Equity vs Equality: Exploring 3 key differences through an employee health lens

During the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders in organisations grappled with instances of employees falling sick due to the coronavirus. Folks came up with innovative solutions: some offered employees the chance to work from home, others announced leave policies specifically to cope with COVID-19. Many organisations decided on a 3-day leave policy for employees who had tested positive for Covid-19.??

If you were working around that time (2019-2022), how did you feel about your organisation’s leave policy for the coronavirus??

Equity versus Equality

One way to look at this is through the lenses of equity and equality. But first, what do Equity and Equality even mean?

The words ‘Equality’ and ‘Equity’ sound similar and are often used interchangeably in conversations on diversity and inclusion. Both these words emerge from the values of justice, kindness, and fairness. However,? ‘Equality’ and ‘Equity’ are very different concepts.?

Equality can help us ensure that every person/group gets treated the same way and gets the same resources as others. Therefore, Equality focuses on “sameness”, making everyone the “same” as the other.

Equity, on the other hand, can help us ensure that each person/group gets resources, opportunities, and support based on their unique individual contexts. Therefore, Equity focuses on different needs within the same social, professional, or economic category of people. It honours our differences and aims to bridge the differences with focused interventions.

Let’s understand this further!

3 Key Differences Between Equity and Equality

1. Social identities and their influence on lived realities:?

Through an Equality-based lens, we could ask: “How can we provide the same resources to everyone irrespective of their social identities (eg: gender, caste, ability, etc)?”?

With an Equity-based lens, we could ask: “What are some ways in which each person/group’s daily life experience and context is shaped by their social identities? What are some specific, tailored resources that could be supportive to them?”?

Going back to the COVID-19 leave policy example, an Equality-based approach could be helpful in recognising that all employees need COVID-19 leave irrespective of their social identities.?

An Equity-based lens would instead help identify how employees’ social identities are influencing their treatment and recovery from COVID-19, and include the impact of Long Covid on different people. An employee with disabilities/chronic illnesses might struggle with the coronavirus and potentially need more days to recover from the infection.?

In the United States, multiple reports pointed to how COVID-19 disproportionately impacted Black communities, and within that, Black women. Taking social identities into account could help employers be more sensitive to their employees’ needs, and retain talent.?

2. Diverse starting points and varied obstacles:?

With an Equality-based approach, we could ask: “How can we remove the obstacles that are getting in the way of the growth and development of some people/groups, and ensure they have the same resources as everyone else?”?

With an Equity-based lens, we could ask: “How can we understand the reality that not everyone is standing at the same starting point as others, even if they belong to the same social groups? How can we explore the many ways in which social identities influence our starting points in life so that some are far ahead and some are far behind?”?

In the COVID-19 leave policy example, equity could look like providing flexible working conditions to employees who have COVID-19 along with disabilities/chronic illnesses. This could be a work-from-home arrangement and/or even a temporary refocusing on the tasks allocated to them.??

3. Access and exposure to opportunities/resources:?

Through an Equality-based lens, we could ask: “How can I bring about equality by providing? equal levels of access and exposure to the same opportunities/resources for everyone?”?

With an Equity-based lens, we could ask: “How can I provide opportunities/resources that address the specific contexts and pain points of certain groups/people?”?

In the COVID-19 leave policy example, equity could look like providing COVID-19 medical/health insurance cover for employees who hail from low-income communities and have disabilities/chronic illnesses along with COVID-19, and taking into account the number of people who continue to suffer from Long Covid symptoms.

Can you see the difference between Equality and Equity? How would these approaches impact your organisation? What are the possible advantages and hurdles??

Tell us in the comments!?

~Sowmya Swaminathan