Pay equity is economic equity.
What is pay equity?
Pay equity means that all workers are given equal pay for equal work regardless of their gender, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, or disability. It is the right of employees to be free from discrimination in their compensation 1. Pay equity is economic equity.
The Gender Pay Gap
Yes, it’s real. Women are paid less than men in nearly every occupation. One study examining wage gaps within occupations found that out of 265 major occupations, men’s median salary exceeded women’s in all but one.2
The gender pay gap stems from a confluence of many things, including the age-old expectation of women providing free labor and the myth that motherhood and caregiving takes away from a woman’s ability to work.
Average gender wage gap for all women
The gender wage gap costs Black Women $976,800 in lost wages.
Average gender wage gap for Black Women
The gender wage gap costs Latina women $1,156,440 in lost wages.
Average gender wage gap for Latina Women
Source: American Progress, 2022
The Racial Pay Gap
Women of color experience greater pay disparity than white women despite the same work. The racial pay gap is exacerbated by systemic racism and connects back to the history of forced, unpaid labor in America, especially for Black Women.
Even where equal pay policies and laws have been implemented, women of color are not always protected. This is because these policies and laws often do not extend to professions and industries in which women of color are employed at higher rates, such as child care, home health care, food and agriculture, and hospitality.4
The wage gap varies greatly among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women based on ancestry and ethnicities. Read more about the disparities here.
Equal pay legislation
Since the 1960s, the U.S. has implemented equal pay policies and laws, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 “prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions.” 7
The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 determined that it is unlawful to “discriminate against any individual with respect to their compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 8
The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 restored the position of the EEOC “that each paycheck that delivers discriminatory compensation is a wrong actionable under the federal EEO statutes, regardless of when the discrimination began.” 9
While these laws were implemented with great intentions, they are difficult to uphold, outdated, and incomprehensive.
We need better. We need more.
Two demonstrated tactics are Pay Transparency Legislation and Salary History Bans. Both policies have been proven to reduce the gender pay gap and increase earnings for women.
Pay Transparency Legislation requires employers to disclose salary information to job candidates and the public to hold the employers accountable to offering a fair and equal salary, no matter who is hired for a position.
Salary History Bans prohibit employers from soliciting pay history from job applicants when considering hiring and compensation for the applicant. When employers calculate a job candidate’s salary offer based on their past salary or pay rate, it negatively affects women who have already been underpaid and undervalued by their previous employers, making it more difficult to obtain the salary they deserve.
As of March 2024, 21 states have passed pay transparency legislation in the U.S. 10 Here in Ohio, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Columbus have all successfully passed components of pay transparency policies. We must keep this momentum going.
At the current rate of progress, the gender pay gap will not close until 2088. 11
What we can do about it
- Connect with and join organizations fighting for pay equity, including the Cleveland Pay Equity Alliance and Equal Rights Advocates.
- Continue to deepen your understanding of about pay equity by exploring the resources below.
- Advocate for pay transparency and salary ban policies with your employer and/or legislation at your local and state governments. Interested in learning actionable steps on how to do this? Reach out to us at hello@collabcle.org.
- Protect yourself by knowing your rights about pay transparency.
- Share this information with others so that workers’ rights are known, upheld, and protected in the hiring process.
- Stand up & speak out against pay discrimination when you see it.
- Sign up for Collaborate Cleveland’s monthly newsletter for updates on our work toward pay equity for all.
By understanding the complexities of the gender and racial pay gaps and advocating for legislative action for equal pay, we can take steps to help close these pay gaps.