Dear John,

Today, March 12 is Equal Pay Day, which marks how far into 2024 women, regardless of race or ethnicity, working full time, year-round have to work to be paid what men were paid in 2023. And since the wage gap is even wider for many women of color, catching up takes even longer for us. Women shouldn’t need an extra three months (or more!) to be paid the same amount of money as men. It’s not a day to celebrate, but a day where we recognize how much more needs to be done to close the wage gap.

Keeping pay secret allows unjustified pay gaps to flourish and keeps employees from trusting they are paid fairly. To get closer to closing the wage gap, we can start by creating norms that would encourage employers to stop relying on applicants’ salary history and make sure pay ranges for jobs are stated upfront. We have a chance to make that happen.

Fortunately, the Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting rule would fight pay discrimination and help close the wage gap. The rule would prohibit federal contractors from relying on salary history to set pay and require contractors to include compensation information in job postings. While this proposed rule would only apply to federal contractors, it would create a nationwide model that could influence other employers to take similar steps.

Pay discrimination isn’t always obvious; it often seeps in through unfair pay practices:

• Negotiating pay is notoriously unfavorable to women as women who negotiate are perceived negatively and are more likely to be turned down and end up with less than men who negotiate. But research shows that when job applicants are clearly informed about the context for negotiations, including the typical pay, inequities in negotiation outcomes diminish, which could help narrow gender and racial wage gaps.
• When employers rely on salary history to set pay it forces women to carry past pay discrimination from job to job.

Women and their families, especially women of color, are hugely affected by racial and gender wage gaps. Women, regardless of race or ethnicity, stand to lose $399,6000 to the wage gap over the course of their lifetimes, and some women of color will lose more than $1 million.

So on this Equal Pay Day, help us get closer to closing the wage gap through pay transparency. Submit a comment today and support the Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting rule—because women deserve equal pay now.

Sincerely,

Gaylynn Burroughs
she/her/hers
Director of Workplace Equality, Senior Counsel
National Women's Law Center

P.S.  Visit our website to learn more about pay equity and transparency and how states are also fighting to close the wage gap.