Imagine if outfits were styled the same way women are paid in the U.S.
It’s obvious when nearly a quarter of your outfit is missing. But what happens when nearly a quarter of your paycheck is missing? That’s the reality for women across the U.S., who, according to a recent Glassdoor study, earn, on average, 76 cents to every dollar men make.
The impact of the Gender Pay Gap
This Tuesday was Equal Pay Day, which symbolizes how far into the year women must work in order to earn what men earned in the previous year. Over the last decade, this has translated to an average of more than 100 extra days.
At the current rate, the U.S. won’t achieve equal pay until 2059 — 43 years from now.
In the meantime, women on average stand to lose about $431,000 over the course of their careers because of the gender pay gap. Just imagine what you could achieve with more than $10,000 annually – or nearly half a million dollars more over your career.
What’s more troubling is that the numbers are even lower — and the pay gap wider — for non-white women. According to the National Women’s Law Center, African American women working full time, year round typically make only 60 cents, on average, for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts. For Latinas this figure is only 55 cents, for Asian American women it is 84 cents, and for Native American women it is 59 cents.
Yet the good news is there are companies like Gap Inc. where pay equality already exists today.
Pay equality at Gap Inc.
In 2014, Gap Inc. became the first Fortune 500 Company to announce that we pay our female and male employees equally for equal work. This translates to our male and female employees, on average, earning dollar for dollar for doing the same work. In 2014, we had our methodology and results of gender pay equality externally validated by Exponential Talent, a firm specializing in diversity and inclusion efforts. They confirmed that there is no gender pay gap at Gap Inc.
Today, after completing our annual pay review using this methodology, I’m pleased to share that our company has now reaffirmed our commitment to pay equality for the third consecutive year.
Pay equality is not just the right thing to do for our business; it’s simply how the world should work. Anything less is unacceptable.
A culture of equality
Our company’s record of equal pay for equal work at Gap Inc. is no accident; when our co-founders Doris and Don Fisher launched this business as equal partners in 1969, they created a company based on a culture of equality. Today, this commitment to equality and inclusion continues to inspire us and drive the way we work.
Gap Inc. was recently honored with the 2016 Catalyst Award for our leadership on equal pay for equal work, strong representation of women at all levels, and commitment to advancing the lives of one million women through P.A.C.E., Gap Inc.'s education and life skills program. Today, women make up more than 75 percent of Gap Inc.'s worldwide employee base, from store managers through the CEO's senior leadership team. Additionally, women currently lead four out of five Gap Inc. brands.
Today, this commitment to equality remains a centerpiece of our company’s global talent strategy. We know that attracting and retaining the top talent in our industry is what gives us a competitive edge. We believe that when you have the best minds coming together with diverse views to create something, that’s where the magic happens. This translates to paying people based on the work they do, their value to our company, and what is competitive in the market.
The missing quarter
In recognition of Equal Pay Day, we launched a new, interactive digital experience designed to raise awareness about the impact of the gender pay gap. The campaign features thought-provoking portraits of Gap Inc. employees styled in outfits missing a portion of their wardrobe to represent the fact that women in the U.S. are shortchanged by the gender pay gap.
Designed to raise awareness on the issue of equal pay for equal work, the digital experience features a number of resources, including a pay equality calculator to help women determine – and share on social media – how much money they stand to lose during their lifetime of work because of the pay gap, as well as educational resources and information on how site visitors can join the conversation by uploading photos missing a portion of their own outfit.
I encourage you to get involved. It’s time to #CLOSETHEPAYGAP.
You can also watch a recording of our Senior Vice President, Dan Henkle, speaking about the gender pay gap at Glassdoor’s Roundtable on Pay Equality, alongside Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman, Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and World Cup Champion Megan Rapinoe here.
Sabrina Simmons serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gap Inc.
