What would it mean if women were paid as much as men?

Tuesday, April 20th will mark Equal Pay Day—the point in 2010 when the average woman’s wages finally catch up to her male counterpart’s salary from the prior year. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the movement for pay equity and the impact of unfair pay.

– Andrea Maruniak, National Women’s Law Center, on womanstake.org

Yeah really. Women working full-time, year-round are paid only about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men; in 2008, this meant the average “wage gap” was $10,622. For women of color, the numbers are even worse — African-American women earn 62 cents and Latinas earn 53 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

What would it mean if this wage gap didn’t exist — if, on the average, women were paid as much as men?

Yes, it’s real

Before we get there, though, a brief digression.  Conversations about this topic like the one Mikal kicked off on LinkedIn often fall into a familiar pattern.  Sometimes guys who aren’t familiar with the data mistakenly attribute the wage gap to “obvious” but incorrect reasons.   So let’s just dispose of this up front.

Yes, it’s a complex situation with multiple causes.  Sarah Green’s Investigating the Pay Gap and Laura Fitzpatrick’s Why do Women Still Earn Less Than Men? look at the different contributors to it.  And Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva’s recent Women in Management: Delusions of Progress from Harvard Business Review describes a reality that matches the experience of most women I know:

Even after adjusting for years of work experience, industry, and region, Catalyst found that men started their careers at higher levels than women. And that isn’t because women don’t aspire to the top—the finding holds when you include only women and men who say they’re aiming for senior executive positions. It’s not a matter of parenthood slowing women’s careers, either. Among women and men without children living at home, men still started at higher levels…. After starting out behind, women don’t catch up. Men move further up the career ladder—and they move faster.

If you’re interested in learning more, the AAUW’s Equal Pay Day page has a lot more information on the topic — and what you can do.

If women were paid as much as men …

Back to the question at hand. Something that’s changed since my #fairpay and Women Don’t Ask post from last year is that I now also look at this issue from the perspective of a software startup.  Jennifer Hunt’s research, summarized in Why do Women Leave?, suggests that the single biggest contributor to the exodus of women from technology fields is that they’re dissatisfied with pay and promotion opportunities — and who can blame them?

As Jen Dalitz, SheEO of sphinxx said in a discussion that Mikal had kicked off on LinkedIn, if women were paid as much as men we would see more women taking up the top jobs. She adds:

Not only that, by placing equal financial value on men and women’s work, it would stamp out the inbuilt misogynistic attitudes still prevalent at the top in so many organisations. And by valuing women’s work properly, we’d have to take the long overdue look at how female friendly our work places are, and make the changes and specific actions necessary for women to be able to balance their careers with their lives.

Another, more emotional, way I think of it is in terms of my female friends and colleagues.  actionforeequity describes it far better than I can, discussing how the gap can mean the difference between a living wage and living in poverty, fewer obstacles to face between being trapped in an abusive relationship and getting out, being able to afford a college education, a reliable car to get her to and from work, a home of her own, medical insurance.   How different their lives would be in an alternate universe where they were paid fairly.

Join the conversation

At least, that’s my perspective — which is far from the only one.  Equal Pay Day is a great opportunity to discuss this issue.  Here’s the NWLC’s list of blog posts; check ‘em out see what others have to say. The #fairpay Twitter hashtag is a great place to follow the action and join in.   If you’ve got more than 140 characters to share, please leave them in the comments here!

jon