Today is Equal Pay Day, which symbolizes how far into the year women would need to work in order to make the same amount as men the previous year. In 2017, that date is April 4th, meaning women would have to work 15 months to make the same as men did in 2016, just 12 months.

Women have been fighting for equal rights for a long time, but these statistics show that the fight is not over. Unfortunately, the wage gap still exists for many women in the workplace.

The Facts:

• Women on average lose out on over $400,000 over the course of a 40 year career. ¹
• One in eight women are poor. If they were paid the same as men, poverty would drop from 8.2 to 4.0 percent.²
• Men are 85% more likely than women to be VPs or C-Suite Executives by mid-career. ³
• There are four states (Alaska, Delaware, Michigan and Washington) in which the most relatively common job for men has a median income of over $100,000. There are no states in which the most relatively common job for women exceeds $77,000.⁴

While the problem often seems overwhelming, there are companies who are taking a stand.

The Problem-Solvers:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers, a tax and financial services firm, went public with their gender pay gap. After all, admission is the first step to recovery.⁵
• In 2015, Salesforce performed a comprehensive analysis of 17,000 employees that led to salary adjustments for 6 percent of their workforce. The result? A 33 percent increase in the number of women who were promoted that year.⁶
• More women, like Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson, are taking a stand and demanding raises.⁷

It won’t be an easy battle. For women, it starts with doing your research and fighting for what you deserve. But men aren’t exempt. There are plenty of ways to get involved and be a catalyst for changing the way we view compensation in the workplace.  One step at a time, we are excited to see people taking a stand and making leaps towards closing the gender wage gap.