Black Women’s Policy Center, other groups launch campaign for pay equity

More than a dozen Black women leaders gathered in Carlow University Commons on June 30 to witness the launch of Level Up: Greater Pittsburgh Gender Pay Equity Pledge.

Black Women’s Policy Center, Women and Girls Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh collaborated to launch the campaign dedicated to accomplishing gender pay equity.

“It is time Pittsburgh truly becomes the ‘most livable city’ for all of its residents,” said Rochelle Jackson, founder and director of McKeesport-based Black Women’s Policy Center, which recently held a ‘Rest and Reset’ wellness event in Monroeville.

“For far too long, structural racism and sexism have negatively impacted women, particularly Black women,” she said. “The Level Up Greater Pittsburgh Gender Pay Equity Campaign calls on employers to exercise their power to end gender pay disparities, which disproportionately impact the earning potential of Black women, who have the highest labor participation rate among all women.”

During the Carlow event, Jackson shared facts found in the 2019 Gender Equity Commission report “Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race.”

The report found that Black women earn only 54 cents on the dollar compared with their white male counterparts in Pittsburgh. That represents a large difference between the national average wage gap, calculating that Black women earn 63 cents on the dollar.

Level Up is working to create a systematic change by asking Pittsburgh employers to adopt five commitments when hiring new employees:

• Commit to supporting, promoting and engaging in pay transparency early during the hiring process.

• Ensure a fair and equitable hiring process by eliminating desired-salary and salary-history questions from the application process

• Provide annual company-wide diversity training to address, reduce and educate about unconscious biases and associated barriers that impact hiring, promotion and organizational culture.

• Undertake an annual review of gender and race pay differences among employees performing comparable tasks requiring similar levels of responsibility, skills, complexity and working conditions, and considering levels of education, prior experience, skill and company tenure.

• Commit to reviewing policies and practices to ensure compliance with The National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

“The Level Up: Greater Pittsburgh Gender Pay Equity Campaign shines a spotlight on the pay disparities that exist by gender for all women, while understanding that to achieve gender pay equity, we must first address the significant gender differentials in pay and compensation impacting women of color and their families,” said Angela Reynolds, chief executive officer, YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh.

A recent BWPC report, “Situating the Voice and Experiences of Black Women in Greater Pittsburgh,” revealed that the most pressing concern for Black women is poverty, followed by mental health challenges. These findings made the Level Up movement an urgent priority for each organization involved.

“When Black women in 85% of U.S. cities are doing better than Black women here locally, it’s time for Pittsburgh to Level Up,” said Alexis Walker, GirlGov program manager, Women and Girls Foundation. “When a Black woman, whose talents and skills are needed now more than ever to help fill the labor shortage, can only expect to be paid far less than Black women in other cities, it is bad for the community and just plain bad business.”

Walker shared her personal experiences with the wage gap. During her initial job search out of college, she was hired at a significantly lower salary than male counterparts who had the same educational and professional experience.

She said that forming the Level Up initiative was extremely important after experiencing the injustice firsthand.

After the speakers at Carlow were finished addressing the audience, they signed the initiative and officially launched Level Up. The initiative will be sent as a letter to more than 200 employers in Pittsburgh.

For more information, visit blackwomenspolicycenter.org/pay-equity.