It’s 2015 and, sadly, in the United States a gender pay gap of 22% still exists. In practically every corner of the workforce, women earn less than men. While the gap has become smaller over the years, Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) , a US think tank founded in 1987 and tracks wages with updated fact sheets, projects that- at this pace- it won’t be “..until 2058 for women to finally reach pay parity.”
Possibly more surprising and sobering, is the reality that the gender pay gap is even greater in the nonprofit sector. Yes, the nonprofit sector which tirelessly advocates on behalf of those who have no voice; the sector which fights for equality for all. Yes, that sector.
Women Dominate Nonprofit Leadership; Lag in Pay
According to its annual Wage and Benefit Survey, Robert Morris University’s Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management finds the nonprofit sector has even further to go. Women in the sector earn 25% less than their male counterparts. Nonprofit Quarterly reported on the findings in this post, including this comment from Peggy Outon, Bayer Center’s executive director: “We’ve made some progress and gained some ground before the Great Recession [in 2008], but since then we’ve hit a plateau,”
Nonprofit boards of directors must own their responsibilities as employers and citizens and refuse to allow pay inequity to be the norm.- Peggy Outon
How to Close the Gender Pay Gap?
There’s no one simple fix to this problem and this requires more of a movement than a pat solution. It requires a dedication from all of us in the sector to do our part.