Equal Pay Day: How ASICS Digital is working to narrow the pay gap
Across the globe, women, no matter the country they are living in - do not earn the same wages as their male counterparts. In the US, for example, for every US dollar that a man earns, female-identifying individuals only receive 79 cents.
Stats like this can be jarring, and worrisome. In this day and age, we run under the assumption of equality, but that is not the case when we look at the facts. Equal Pay Day, a universally-recognized day fighting for the pay equity of all genders across the world. By recognizing this day, women across all races begin to draw attention to the inequity and severe gender pay gap.
By the numbers:
Wage gap by demographic: (via Equal Pay Today)
Women of Color as compared to White, non-Hispanic Men:
Asian-American Women: March 5, 2019* -- $.85 (cents)
White Women: April 19, 2019-- $.77 (cents)
African-American/Black Women: August 22, 2019 -- $.61 (cents)
Native American Women: September 23, 2019 -- $.58 (cents)
Latinas: November 20, 2019 -- $.53 (cents)
All Moms compared to All Dads
Moms: June 10, 2019 -- $.69 (cents
*Equal Pay figures for this community vary widely by ethnicity.
While the awareness engine for equal pay runs all year long, we recognize a myriad of Equal Pay Days, including: Asian-American Women’s Equal Pay Day (March), all women’s Equal Pay Day (April), African American Women’s Equal Pay Day (July), and Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day (September) and Latina Equal Pay Day (November).
Looking back to earlier this month, we recognized Latina Equal Pay Day.
This day recognizes just how much Latinas in the United States must work in order to earn the equal amount that their white male counterparts earn, in a year. Specifically, to earn what their male counterparts earned in 2018 alone, a US-based Latina had to work all of 2018 plus an extra 11 months into 2019. Truly, Latinx people are hit the hardest by this gap, and the world is beginning to listen.
In light of this day, and year of working towards pay equity, we sat down with Adrienne Barnard, Director, People Operations at our client, ASICS Digital. We chatted with Adrienne about how this leading fitness company is working to make the gender gap a little smaller in their company, and how they are helping support Latinx people in the process.
What does Equal Pay Day mean to you? Why is it important?
To me, Equal Pay Day is a time to call attention to and recognize the ongoing inequality that exists for historically excluded groups, especially as it relates to areas like pay which is vital for success, survival and long term stability.
While I'm very much of the mindset that "every day should be equal payday," I also appreciate that bringing attention to it in a united effort can create more ripple effects of positivity so days like this are important to recognize and talk about. I would hope that people who are made aware of it during an event type day will then pick up and do the work within their own organizations to ensure real change is happening.
What measures has your company taken to ensure the closing of the pay gap across your organization? Has anything been done specifically to help reduce the gap for Latinx people in your company?
We have made a lot of changes in the last two years to add process, toolkits and more senior-level discussions around compensation in order to begin to reduce bias in hiring/compensation decisions and bring more structure to our process overall. We also utilize tools within our HR systems that give us data points on what the current gender pay gap is, and we are above benchmark here!
I'm also proud to work in a State that was one of the first to pass pay equity laws that are in place to reduce the gender pay gap. We have not been doing anything specific for Latinx people in our community.
What do you think are the things that we as a society can do to close the gender pay gap for good?
Oh man, how much time do you have? I think states should continue to pass pay equity laws, I think family medical leave laws also play a part in the promotion of sharing the burden of working and raising families which reduces the public perception that women should stay home and raise kids while men work and "earn".
I think larger organizations that are in the public eye should discuss this, share their stats and encourage more businesses and organizations to follow their lead. There are a lot of smaller everyday things too, but that's a good start!
Any other thoughts or things to share?
These are difficult and important conversations to have, and I hope those reading this will take this internally and use it to start the convos in their organization. One of the best things those of us in People Ops/HR can do is call attention to gender pay inequity when we see it.
It is something I'm committed to raising every time I see it, even though it is uncomfortable and scary and challenging at times to do so. You won't always get the answer you want, and sometimes you may have to push a little harder to get there, and it is worth it to begin to call attention, break down the barriers and open up the discussions.
We had a great time chatting with Adrienne and were impressed at the thoughtfulness that she and her team at ASICS Digital have put forth towards narrowing the pay gap.
Work brings together people from all walks of life, all races and denominations. We should all strive to make our workplaces as equal and diverse as possible. To get there, companies must do the work to be aware of where there are pitfalls, i.e. with gender pay gaps. By building a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace, companies can stay competitive and attract and retain top talent.
The first step: education. We can help with that and our equal payday curriculum available today!
Connect with Crescendo today to help your employees build stronger working relationships across global and distributed teams and create products and campaigns that succeed with diverse consumers. Start scaling your D&I strategy globally today.