Today is Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. According to the NCPE, Equal Pay Day "symbolizes how far into 2010 women must work to earn what men earned in 2009."

According to NCPE,

"Equal Pay Day involves thousands of local advocates in programs and activities focused on eradicating wage discrimination against women and people of color. Local Equal Pay Day activists organize rallies, lobby days, speak-outs, letter-writing campaigns, workshops, and meetings with employers, policy-makers, and enforcement agencies to promote effective solutions for closing the wage gap."

In his March 2010 testimony before the Senate HELP Committe, Acting EEOC Chairman Stuart Ishimaru stated:

"The wage gap is alive and well in America, with the typical full time year round female worker making $0.77 for every dollar earned by her male counterpart... Although some of the pay gap can be explained by differentials in experience or as a result of the differences in the occupations men and women typically do, the Shriver Report estimates that about 41% of the pay gap cannot be explained by these factors."

Based on the findings of the Shriver Report, of the $0.23 differential between men's and women's earnings, approximately $0.09 cannot be explained by differentials in experience or differences in occupation.

Employers should regularly conduct compensation self-audits to ensure that they are compensating employees fairly. In these self-audits, looking for gender disparities is not enough; it's important that all employees are compensated fairly, regardless of protected group status.