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Human Capital Management, Leadership, Uncategorized

The Complexities of Equal Pay Day

Jacob Kind /

April 2nd was Equal Pay Day, a day created to draw attention to the gender pay gap. It is the day that marks about how long a woman would need to work till she earned as much money as a man in a position equal to her own earned in the calendar year. This means that on average a women needs to work 4 months more to earn equal to what men earn. The April 2nd date is calculated by finding the average of the income earned by women of all demographic groups. Smart leaders who learn about the meaning of April 2nd and complexities of it can build a solid foundation to ensure inclusion, equity, and diversity in their organizations.

Because April 2nd is a date based on averaged data, it hides the Equal Pay Days of other demographics of women. The timeline below shows the dates that the women of these various demographics would need to work to for their equal pay day.

The misleading nature of the averaged Equal Pay Day shows how statistics don’t always fully illuminate the full picture of reality. Leaders and executives can learn from this by integrating approaches into their business plans that address these kinds of systemic gender issues, but also tackle those issues through a multi-cultural framework. Without creating workforce plans aimed to increase equity among coworkers, leaders can fail to cure the core issues that deal major blows to organizational health.

Sometimes, organizations can feel stuck and may not know where to begin when addressing the challenges associated with inclusion, equity and diversity. Identifying that your organization has opportunity to improve and gaining commitment from internal stakeholders is the first step to creating change. Collaborating with external partners can also serve as a useful tool in creating a work environment that is inclusive and equitable to all employees. A Diversity Assessment that focuses on the current state of your inclusion, equity and diversity efforts can provide leaders with the needed information to implement or recharge inclusion, equity and diversity practices. With action plans set in place we can make the need for an Equal Pay Day to be a memory of the past.

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