Did you know that Tuesday, April 22nd was Equal Pay Day? I didn’t. In fact, I’ve never heard of it. Why isn’t this day publicized more?
According to BizWomen.com, Equal Pay Day was created in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity to draw attention to the inequality in pay between men and women in the United States. It falls on a Tuesday in April each year.Â
The importance of this holiday is undeniably significant. Lauren Lawley Head said it all in her post on BizWomen.com called Pay Gap Worth Steaming Over when she listed these facts:
- Nationally, women make 77 cents for every $1 men earn.
- In terms of annual pay, it took women from January 1, 2007 until April 2008 to make as much money as their male colleagues had made by December 31, 2007.
- In terms of weekly pay, women have to work until the following Tuesday to catch up to the earnings of men in equivalent positions.
What do you think about National Pay Day? Have you heard of it? Have you participated in any activities related to National Pay Day? Leave a comment and share your experience and/or thoughts.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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Since women are the ones whose careers take a detour when they have children, either because they stay home, or because they make many compromises in their career goals, this wage gap will probably never go away. It can and probably will narrow though.
One way that women can take control of their careers and their income is through self-employment. It may not be the easiest road at first, but with challenges also come great rewards. Being your own boss is the biggest reward of all.
To suggest we make less money because of child bearing and that this is the reason behind the salary gap is absolutely a self fulfilling prophecy that I for one do not intend to be apart of. If in today’s society men also get maternity leave then it would stand to reason that the gap would not be affected by child bearing. Lets not give corporate America a cop out. I will stand and be counted. We aren’t asking for special consideration just equal compensation.
@Tracey: anna makes a good point and you only embellish on it. The fact that women tend to elect to TAKE maternity leave moreso than men do (statistical fact) would suggest that personal accountability plays a huge role in professional progress and the only cop-out in this equation is the authors pre-supposition that the females reproductive organs are the main thing holding her back in the work-place. Is it unfortunate that men don’t typically take advantage of the opportunity to take ‘maternity leave’? Yeah, sure. But men don’t carry the baby around for 9 months, their disposition is going to be a little more detached than if they did. That in and of itself is nobody’s fault.