Happy (?) Belated Equal Pay Day

I’ll be honest. Not only am I late by a day in recognizing Equal Pay Day, but I don’t know the etiquette.

Is it “happy”?

I can’t imagine why anyone would be happy about it. Heck, I just Googled and was immediately shown “11 Gender Wage Gap Statistics That Will Scare The Crap Out Of You.“

I think we can all agree that Equal Pay Day is important. Unfortunately, I’m typing is at 11:30 at night at my dining room table having just arrived home from a series of flights originating in Huntsville, Alabama. (There’s a reasonable explanation for that.) So, right now, I can’t give this important subject the attention and in-depth analysis it deserves.

What I can do is share some articles and posts that I aggregated during layovers:

• Start at tHRive Law & Consulting, where my friend Kate Bischoff’s “Happy Equal Pay Day?” highlights the progress that women have made and the distance yet to cover to address a pay gap in the workplace.
• Then check out a strong post from my colleague, Amy Epstein Gluck. I’m proud to work for an employer where we have no pay gap based on any protected class.
• Lilly Ledbetter, yes that Lilly Ledbetter, has an op-ed in the New York Times.
• Over at SHRM, don’t miss Lisa Nagele-Piazza‘s recap (here) of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Rizo v. Yovino (opinion here). In Rizo, the appellate court held that an employer cannot rely upon salary history as a factor other than sex to justify a gap in pay between a man and woman in the same position. (Helen Christophi at Courthouse News also recaps the Rizo decision here.)
• For you number crunchers, FiveThirtyEight does a deep dive into some equal pay statistics.
• Finally, Julie Bogen at Vox pulls no punches in her candid assessment of Equal Pay Day.

Sorry, I’ve got nothing more for you today. To make it up to you, if you missed out on yesterday’s FMLA/ADA PowerPoint (technically, Google Slides) giveaway, I got you hooked up today. If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear your feedback.

And, do me a favor. Share that slide deck with a friend who doesn’t subscribe to this blog. While you’re at it, let ’em know how easy it is to sign up for daily email updates to The Employer Handbook. Thanks.