Wage Equity Now: Closing the raw wage gap by 2030

430 254 Michaela Sawicki

Over the past few months, Megan Costello and the leadership of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum have continued to make progress on our big idea: closing the raw wage gap by 2030 by asking companies to publicly report their overall wage gaps by gender and race.

 

Some of the biggest updates include our work with Judy Habib’s team at KHJ Brand Activation. KHJ helped to create a name, vision, and a logo for this project. We’ve also recruited over 15 coalition partners including but not limited to: YWBoston, Amplify Latinx, The Boston Club, The Commonwealth Institute, Center for Women and Enterprise, the Boston Women’s Workforce Council and many more. These partners are critical to the success of this project. They are helping to recruit businesses and offering their area of expertise — solutions for how organizations can close their gaps.

 

This is already happening in several other countries.

 

We are not starting from ground zero. It is currently the law in the United Kingdom for companies with over 250 employees to publicly report their data. We have spoken to them about their model and process to publicly collect this data. This was originally voluntary but shortly after the UK Parliament passed a law mandating companies with over 250 employees to report.

 

Creating a beta group. We need your help.

 

What we are doing now is recruiting a group of Massachusetts employers and asking them to do the following: run their numbers to discover your overall raw wage gaps and meet with us to discuss our plan and potentially engage with us on this project. We are not asking for a commitment to public reporting for this beta group, but rather this will be our learning group. To sign up to be part of our beta test group and to learn more you can click here.

 

The RAW Wage Gap?

 

It is important to note that the raw wage gap is not equal pay for equal work. It is the percent difference in the average pay for women and men. It is important for us to also understand how this data breaks down by race, we know the barriers for women of color are even greater, so we will be asking for the following information from the beta group:

  • Mean male total compensation
  • Mean female total compensation
  • Mean total compensation for men of color
  • Mean total compensation for women of color

 

We recognize that knowing these numbers does not mean that we can close these gaps overnight, but it is important to know this information, be transparent about the numbers, and be intentional about closing the gaps. All organizations are different and gaps exist for a variety of reasons so the plan for closing them will be case-specific. The beta group will be providing feedback on what questions we are asking that will help us ultimately decide what questions we ask for public reporting. Our goal is to keep the reporting simple, but also capture important data to inform employers about their gaps and where they should focus to close them.

 

If you or your employer are interested in participating in our beta test group please fill out this form.  As a reminder, this is our beta group and does not mean that you are committing to public reporting, but rather it means you’re interested in engaging in this project and learning more.

Author

Michaela Sawicki

All stories by: Michaela Sawicki