If you’re one of the 288 million active monthly Twitter users you may have seen the hashtag #EqualPayDay all over your news feed yesterday. April 14th was dubbed by many as Equal Pay Day and masses took to Social Media to Highlight Pay Inequality between men and women. It seems almost absurd to think that in 2015 there are still inequalities between the sexes but according the recent reports the gaps are still extremely prevalent between us.
Probably the most shocking statistic from these reports is that women on average earn only 78% of what their male counterparts earn. So that means that for every $1 a man made in the U.S on average their female counterparts only earned 78 cents. April 14th was chosen as #EqualPayDay because it highlights that men could be on holiday from January 1st until this day, and still earn the same amount by December 31st as their female counterparts who have worked from the beginning of the year. Obviously these statistics don’t represent every single case but you simply cannot ignore them!
You can type ‘CEO’ into Google Images and not see a picture of a woman until you scroll down to the 83rd image, and the fact that picture is of ‘CEO Barbie’ highlights the issue further. There really is no reason for such a wide gap! Many suggest the fact that women will leave work to raise children at some point of their career a factor of this – but when you consider that women take a cut with maternity pay anyway then this doesn’t really make sense.
Now I find it easy to get all ‘Beyoncé’ and shout about these crazy statistics as a professional woman myself, however I fall guilty of the group that have bit my tongue in the past. Talking about money and salary can be a real taboo subject so it’s no wonder some of us (Men AND Women) are on salaries below our worth. The website Levo (aimed at professional women to help them progress their career), launched the #Ask4More campaign to help women approach employers on subjects such as salary increase and extra responsibility at work.
Of course this isn’t always the case; many of you will have fair equal opportunity employers so I’m not suggesting you march into your boss’s office demanding a pay rise! As IT and Digital recruiters we speak to a wide range of candidates, both men and women, and we seek to get everyone the best salary based upon their skills and experience. We are doing our bit for equal pay and hopefully not too far down the line everyone will do the same.
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)
