Thanks for the 5 Cents
Julia and Marc Pimsleur in the late 1970s in New York City
Thanks for the five cents.
Despite all the measurable progress women have made over the past 30 years, one of the most important numbers – the pay gap – has barely moved.
A new Pew study about the gender pay gap reveals that it has barely budged over the past twenty years. According to the research, American women are now making roughly 82 cents to every dollar men earned last year and that’s the same as it was in 2002.
Closing the economic gender gap is personal to me. I clearly remember how as a child growing up in New York, my mother, Beverly, told me that women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earned. I was like “what?” But figured that would get fixed pretty quickly.
Beverly was a teacher and a single mom in New York City. We were always worried about money. I got my first job when I was 13, eventually working my way through high school and college on scholarships. So I’ve seen firsthand how the wage gap impacts women’s families, opportunities to build generational wealth, and their stress levels.
The fact that we’ve only increased that wage gap five cents over the course of a generation serves as a stark reminder that corporate America is not going to be the one to close the gender pay gap. The World Economic Forum predicts it will take 268 years for men and women to earn the same amount of money.
While these stats are bleak, there actually is a way to shave about 100 years off that prediction.
Entrepreneurship.
When women start their own businesses, the glass ceiling disappears. Of course, for some, that turns into a revenue ceiling. 90% of women's small business owners make around $100,000 a year, and have 0 employees. For women of color the average is more like $25 - $50,000 per year.
This is why my goal is to help one million women get to over $1 million in revenues. When we accomplish this, we'll add another $1.9 Trillion to the economy, creating 5 million more jobs.
Entrepreneurship also has the potential to finally change the narrative about women making less than men.
#entrepreneurs #business #workingmoms #scalingup #equity