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and tweets are just a few examples. Joining an organization like AAUW
<br />can make all these activities easier, especially if you use our templates and
<br />resources and connect with our network of activists.
<br />Employers
<br />Companies should know by now that paying workers fairly is necessary for
<br />legal and ethical reasons. But fair pay can also be good for the bottom line.
<br />Believing that an employer is fair improves workers' morale (Cohen -Cha -
<br />rash & Spector, 2001; Kim, 2009). Work performance has also been linked
<br />to the perception of organizational justice (Colquitt et al., 2001). In other
<br />words, workers who believe that they are paid fairly are more likely to con-
<br />tribute their best effort to the job.
<br />One employer took this recommendation to heart and decided to volun-
<br />tarily audit its pay practices. In 2015, Salesforce performed a comprehensive
<br />analysis of 17,000 employees that led to salary adjustments for 6 percent of
<br />employees. The result? A 33 percent increase in the number of women who
<br />were promoted that year (Zarya, 2016). Salesforce's actions garnered atten-
<br />tion across the country, inspiring the Obama administration to announce
<br />the White House's Equal Pay Pledge for private sector companies to
<br />commit to equal pay for their employees. As of August 2016, more than 50
<br />companies had signed the pledge, including American Airhnes, Apple, the
<br />Dow Chemical Company, Facebook, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson,
<br />Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Staples.
<br />As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once noted, "Sunshine is the
<br />best disinfectant." Transparency in compensation can make a difference. A
<br />national survey by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) found
<br />that about half of employees said they worked in a setting where discus-
<br />sions of wages and salaries are either formally prohibited or discouraged
<br />by managers (Institute for Women's Pohcy Research, 2011). According to
<br />IWPR, pay secrecy is much more common in the private sector, where 61
<br />percent of employees are either discouraged or prohibited from discussing
<br />wage and salary information.
<br />22 .� 9
<br />Using a single benchmark provides a more informative picture. Because non -
<br />Hispanic white men are the largest demographic group in the labor force,
<br />they are often used for that purpose. Compared with salary information for
<br />white male workers, Asian American women's salaries show the smallest
<br />gender pay gap, at 85 percent of white men's earnings. The gap was largest
<br />for Hispanic and Latina women, who were paid only 54 percent of what
<br />white men were paid in 2015 (Figure 4). The smaller within -group gender
<br />pay gap among African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Native
<br />Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders is due solely to
<br />the fact that men in those groups were paid substantially less than non -His-
<br />panic white men in 2015 (Figure 3).
<br />FIGURE 4
<br />Earnings Ratio of Women Compared to White Men, by Race/Ethnicity, 2015
<br />Note: Based on median annual earnings of full-time, year-round workers The CPS includes workers 15 and older, and the
<br />ACS includes workers 16 and older. The CPS is the preferred data source for income estimates but lacks sufficient sample
<br />size for reporting on smaller demographic groups, which is why percentages for two categories above are unavailable. See
<br />page 6 for a more detailed description of the CPS and ACS.
<br />Sources: U.5. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements, Table P-38 and U S
<br />Census Bureau, 2015 Amencan Community Survey 1 -Year Estimates
<br />Age
<br />Earnings for both female and male full-time workers tend to increase with
<br />age, with a plateau after age 45 and a drop after age 65. The gender pay gap
<br />also grows with age, and differences among older workers are considerably
<br />larger than differences among younger workers.
<br />11
<br />Current Population
<br />Survey (CPS)
<br />American
<br />Community Survey
<br />(ACS)
<br />Hispanic or Latina
<br />54%
<br />54%
<br />African American
<br />63%
<br />62%
<br />White (non -Hispanic)
<br />75%
<br />76%
<br />Asian
<br />85%
<br />90%
<br />Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
<br />--
<br />60%
<br />American Indian and Alaska Native
<br />--
<br />58%
<br />Note: Based on median annual earnings of full-time, year-round workers The CPS includes workers 15 and older, and the
<br />ACS includes workers 16 and older. The CPS is the preferred data source for income estimates but lacks sufficient sample
<br />size for reporting on smaller demographic groups, which is why percentages for two categories above are unavailable. See
<br />page 6 for a more detailed description of the CPS and ACS.
<br />Sources: U.5. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements, Table P-38 and U S
<br />Census Bureau, 2015 Amencan Community Survey 1 -Year Estimates
<br />Age
<br />Earnings for both female and male full-time workers tend to increase with
<br />age, with a plateau after age 45 and a drop after age 65. The gender pay gap
<br />also grows with age, and differences among older workers are considerably
<br />larger than differences among younger workers.
<br />11
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