What We Talk About When We Talk About Pay Inequity
But my white male counterparts earn $25,000 to $30,000 more a year than I do.”
Ms. Johnson is one of 1,000 women on whose behalf a local union filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2013, claiming
that the city paid women and minorities substantially less than their white male colleagues.
Early in her career, Jewelle Bickford, now a partner at Evercore Wealth Management, worked at a global bank in New York with a male colleague
who was on his best behavior during the first half of the day, she said, but during and after lunch, his work ethic devolved.
Though the pay gap has long been in the public consciousness — on average, American women make 80 cents for every dollar men make — three recent
incidents have brought renewed scrutiny to an issue many women in the workplace say they continue to confront on an almost daily basis..
“I’ve made about 40 percent less than a colleague that’s maybe only a tiny level above me, someone I didn’t report to,” Ms. Keller said.
“I was brought up in a culture where it was considered gauche.”
“I missed that class,” said Ms. Johnson.
They included Gayl Johnson, a director of administration in New York City’s Department of Sanitation; Alix Keller, the director of product technology at Hello Alfred, a home concierge service; Melissa Robbins, a Philadelphia-based political strategist;
and Kimberly Webster, formerly a lawyer at a New York firm.
Once, she said, she called a supervisor and asked why she was making less than a male counterpart.
“When he came back, you would walk by his office, and he would have his head down,” Ms. Bickford said.
