Equal Pay Day

working women in Seattle make $0.78 to every $1.00 that working men make. this has a lot to do with the gender pay gaps rampant in the tech industry, but the gap is present in nearly every industry, and we're doing all we can to close it.

today is Equal Pay Day - the day that women need to work past January of the year before to make what men make. it's even further out for women of color. this needs to change! organizations like the Economic Opportunity Institute fight for policy changes to help close the wage gap. on Equal Pay Day we are donating 22% of all shop sales to the Economic Opportunity Institute.

we are doing what we can as a small business to promote gender equity and to close the gender wage gap. this means having set starting wages for every position, fighting for a higher minimum wage (which we did!) and now working with organizations like the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United to raise the minimum wage across the country as 2/3rds of minimum wage jobs are held by women. this also means providing benefits to our workforce like 12 weeks fully paid parental leave so that women can more easily stay in the workforce and be supported.

another important thing companies can do to help close the gender wage gap is to become pay transparent. today, Molly Moon's officially became pay transparent. this means that every one of our employees can access their wages and the wages of everyone on our mooncrew. this will help our employees be better equipped to advocate for themselves now and in the future!

who else practices pay transparency?

pay transparency is not yet widely practiced, especially in larger companies. according to a Time article, only 17% of private companies practice pay transparency. This is sometimes because companies don't want to reveal that there are pay discrepancies based on gender and/or race, fear that it may spark conflict between employees, concern that pay differences may be taken out of context or the administrative cost of a fully transparent system. however, many companies and organizations do choose to release salary information including government agencies, companies like Whole Foods who want to encourage conversation amongst their employees, and Redfin who decided to publish their pay gap and other diversity statistics as a way to hold themselves accountable and to also encourage other companies to join them in publishing their data.

what else helps close pay gaps?

• passing more wage equality legislation and equal pay protections
• raising the minimum wage (two thirds of minimum wage workers are women)
• having set starting salaries for every position
• encouraging women to learn pay negotiation skills
• encouraging the discussion of pay with coworkers
• passing gender neutral family leave policies
• passing family friendly workplace policies that provide access to things like affordable childcare