Latest news with #equalpay
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
If Every Worker in America Earned the Same Paycheck, What Would Happen to the Economy?
Imagine an America where the CEO of a tech giant takes home the same salary as a grocery store cashier. Where software engineers, janitors, teachers and hedge fund managers all earn the exact same paycheck. It's a radical idea, and one that's gaining attention thanks to people like Madeline Pendleton, founder of Tunnel Vision, a clothing company where every employee, including Pendleton herself, is paid the same wage. Profits are shared, and there's a five-year plan to distribute ownership equally. It's an especially compelling idea when you consider that most working Americans are struggling to get by, while CEOs were paid 351 times as much as the typical worker in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But what would happen if this model were scaled up, not just to one business, but to the entire U.S. economy? Find Out: Read Next: The short answer: The results would be complicated, and maybe even chaotic. Chris Motola, a financial analyst with explains that the impact of every worker in the U.S. drawing the same salary is very different than every worker within a single company drawing the same salary. 'A socialist company like Tunnel Vision is still competing within a capitalist economy,' he said. 'Blown out to the national level, this technically wouldn't even be socialism, but a strictly enforced compensation regime.' Pendleton's model thrives partly because it exists within capitalism. Her employees benefit from equitable treatment and profit-sharing, but the business still competes on the open market. When you remove individual compensation differences across the entire workforce, say, by mandating a single national wage, it changes everything. What Happens to Motivation and Performance? One of the biggest challenges in a flat-pay society is motivation. If no matter how hard (or little) you work, you earn the same as everyone else, what's the incentive to go above and beyond? 'The immediate question is, 'How would such a society provide extrinsic motivation if it can't offer different levels of financial compensation to workers at the individual level?'' Motola said. He proposes a few scenarios. One is to treat the nation like a giant corporation, where GDP gains and sovereign wealth fund profits are distributed as bonuses, meaning everyone is a stockholder. Another is to provide nonfinancial incentives like status, land or flexibility. But both ideas raise further questions: Who decides who gets what perks? What keeps people from burning out when their extra effort brings them no extra pay? 'High performers and low performers would receive the same compensation, however, which could lead to resentment and burnout,' Motola noted. Discover More: Would Markets Still Exist? Even in a flat-pay society, people would likely still want to build wealth. If investment and ownership remain possible, a new class divide could simply emerge between those who invest wisely and those who don't (or can't afford to). 'Does the market still exist? Can people still invest? If so, investors could potentially earn a higher income beyond their salary,' Motola pointed out. So even if salaries were equal, inequalities could persist, just in different forms. Capital investment, property ownership and other private ventures might become the new dividing lines. The End of the Hustle Economy One immediate effect of wage flattening could be the collapse of the hustle economy. No more side gigs for extra income, because everyone already earns the same. That might sound great to burned-out workers, but it could also stifle innovation. Still, there's potential upside: more collaboration and less competition. Without the pressure to outperform for promotions or raises, people might focus on meaningful work, not just lucrative work. Slower, but Possibly Fairer Decision-Making A national flat-pay system would likely eliminate traditional corporate hierarchies, or at least remove pay as the incentive for climbing them. 'The main value proposition of hierarchy, including economic hierarchy, is that it provides a quicker, more efficient decision-making apparatus than resolving things by committee,' Motola said. 'The flipside is that a bad despot can do far more damage than a bad committee.' With equal pay, leadership roles may still exist but they'd be chosen for trust or skill, not compensation. That could lead to slower processes but potentially more democratic workplaces. Utopian or Unworkable? Ultimately, paying every worker in America the same salary would require a fundamental restructuring of how we define value, ambition and success. Changing every worker's salary to a flat rate would go well beyond payroll. It would require a fundamental reset of cultural norms around value, ambition and success. Pendleton's Tunnel Vision proves that an equal-pay model can work on a small scale, with buy-in from everyone involved. But scaling that model to an entire nation? As Motola put it, 'Long story short: It's an unworkable scenario.' Still, it's a compelling thought experiment and one that forces us to confront the values embedded in our paychecks, and to ask whether equality always has to come at the expense of incentive, or if we just need a new kind of incentive altogether. More From GOBankingRates 10 Genius Things Warren Buffett Says To Do With Your Money This article originally appeared on If Every Worker in America Earned the Same Paycheck, What Would Happen to the Economy?
Reuters
20-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Syria, Japan, Coke sugar and equal pay in women's sports
Follow on Apple or Spotify. Listen on the Reuters app. Residents say no gunfire heard Sunday morning in Syria's Sweida. Japan's exit polls show a defeat for the ruling party coalition in the upper parliament. The fight for equal pay in U.S. women's basketball is on court, while in the UK a female footballer reaches a milestone. Plus, Trump's push for Coke to use cane sugar. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit to opt out of targeted advertising. Further Reading Japan's ruling coalition likely to lose upper house majority, exit poll shows, opens new tab Calm reported in Syria's Sweida as tribal fighters said to withdraw Rains from Typhoon Wipha batter Hong Kong as it heads for mainland China Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeks $10 billion Haitian immigrants in Ohio stand firm as Trump threatens deportation Coke's shift to cane sugar would be expensive, hurt US farmers A Nazi document trove raises questions for Argentina Arsenal smash record to make Smith first women's million-pound signing 'Pay them': As WNBA All-Star party wraps up, athlete pay comes into focus
Forbes
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Pay Equity And The Value Of Black Women's Labor
Beyonce Knowles performs onstage during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire ... More Polo Field in Indio, California. Getty Images for Coachella For all her global influence, even Beyoncé hasn't been immune to the wage gap that Black women in America face. When she released her Renaissance World Tour concert film in 2023, she didn't go through the usual Hollywood studio channels—instead, she struck a direct deal with AMC Theaters. It was a bold move, but also a telling one, especially in an industry where Black women creators are often offered smaller distribution deals and less backend compensation than their white counterparts—even when their work drives massive cultural and financial impact—sometimes the only way forward is to build your own lane. The entertainment industry makes clear just how differently the system can treat artists. When Taylor Swift fought for ownership of her master recordings, major labels lined up to support her re-recording efforts. She had the industry behind her. That kind of institutional backing is what should be standard for all creators—regardless of race, background or genre—but it rarely is. Black Women's Equal Pay Day, observed each July, marks how far into the year this demographic must work to match what white men earned the year before. The fact that this date falls deeper into the summer than any other group's is telling. White women reach pay parity in March, Asian women in April—but Black women labor until midsummer to close a gap that represents 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men, according to the Institute For Women's Policy Research. In another report by the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2023, Black women in the U.S. missed out on a whopping $42.7 billion in wages compared to white men. But the numbers get even grimmer. Over a 40-year career, the typical Black woman will lose approximately $1 million compared to her white male co-workers. Those dollars in lost wages also mean reduced consumer spending power; money that could have been reinvested into local businesses, the housing market and broader industries simply isn't there, and this drag on consumption can hamper economic growth, especially given that Black women are an influential consumer demographic. Also, the effect of lower pay can translate to higher rates of family poverty and less economic mobility in Black communities. When half the population operates at diminished economic capacity, the entire economy suffers. Despite growing political pushback against Diversity Equity and inclusion, the numbers still speak for themselves. According to McKinsey's 'Diversity Wins' report, companies with the highest gender diversity on executive teams are 25% more likely to outperform their peers financially. It's a reminder that inclusion isn't just a moral obligation but is good for business. Despite what the numbers say, the very systems that create this economic value often shut Black women out of it because the barriers are structural. Also, there is the 'double jeopardy' penalty for being both Black and female in environments where power and compensation are often reserved for those who are neither. Seemingly harmless and subjective phrases like 'executive presence' and 'cultural fit' are often used as coded language to filter out qualified Black women from senior roles. Bias shows up subtly: in salary negotiations, in who gets the stretch assignments and in whose leadership style is perceived as 'confident' versus 'abrasive.' The 'angry Black woman' trope can further penalize those who negotiate for higher salaries or advocate for themselves, even when they advocate respectfully, leading to underpayment even within the same job roles as other races. Why Executive Diversity Still Hasn't Trickled Down Silicon Valley offers one of the clearest examples of this phenomenon. The tech industry has created massive wealth in the last two decades, but Black women hold just 1% of senior leadership roles at major companies. Venture capital, for example, funds the next generation of wealth creation but invests less than 0.2% of dollars into startups founded by Black women. That's not a gap but a canyon that has been reinforced by decades of structural neglect. The finance sector also tells a similar story. Black women make up 7% of the banking and securities workforce but only occupy 1.4% of senior executive roles. This is especially problematic because compensation in financial services is reliant on bonuses, commissions and decision-making power and these rewards don't often trickle down. Even in healthcare—a sector where Black women have historically carried the burden of care—they're underrepresented in leadership. They make up 14.5% of the healthcare workforce but only 3% of executives. Portrait of a cheerful businesswoman smiling during a meeting with colleagues. getty In this paradox of value, Black women frequently contribute outsized value in productivity, creativity and leadership, yet they remain underpaid for it. Beyoncé's Renaissance film strategy illustrates this paradox perfectly: she had to create entirely new distribution pathways because existing Hollywood systems proved insufficient. Although the film raked in over $44 million at the global box office, the need to bypass traditional studios reflects broader patterns where Black women must build alternative systems to access fair compensation. Business ownership, which is frequently championed as an alternative path to financial independence, presents its own set of challenges. Despite being the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, Black women typically start their businesses with less capital, generate lower revenues and struggle to access growth financing. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic made this disparity worse because Black women experienced the highest rates of job loss during the initial economic shutdown. However, they were also overrepresented in essential worker categories that carried more health risks without proportional pay. The K-shaped recovery that followed—with high-skilled workers benefiting from remote work flexibility while service sector employees faced continued uncertainty—affected Black women disproportionately, especially those concentrated in vulnerable industries. The numbers behind Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour tell only part of the story. Yes, it grossed $579 million, but the real business lesson is how she took her individual success and created a ripple effect that launched dozens of careers. Female artists like Swift have also demonstrated a similar economic impact across multiple cities and industries. This multiplier effect—where one person's success creates opportunities for entire ecosystems—illustrates what's lost when systemic barriers prevent other creators from accessing institutional support and resources. The path forward needs to be a hybrid solution of systemic change and individual action. To address this effectively, investors must look at their portfolios for companies with strong diversity metrics and pay equity records. Also, the conversation must shift from viewing pay equity as a cost to recognizing it as an investment. The question corporate America should now be asking is whether it can afford to address pay equity or ignore it. We are now operating in a knowledge economy where human capital increasingly drives competitive advantage, so undervaluing the contributions of Black women will continue to be a miscalculation. Beyoncé's ability to command premium pricing for her work offers a template: when talent is recognized and compensated, everyone benefits from the value created. Paying Black women what they are worth is a collective investment in our economic future. The question now is no longer whether closing the wage gap benefits everyone—the numbers prove it does—but how quickly we can build systems that unlock this economic potential.
Harvard Business Review
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Harvard Business Review
Research: The Gender Wage Gap Tipping Point
The gender wage gap has been in existence at least since the U.S. Civil War era, when an 1869 letter to The New York Times exposed unfair treatment of women working in government and argued that 'equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer.' Fast forward 156 years and women still only earn 83 cents for every dollar that men make, a number that has barely budged over the past two decades and is consistent across OECD countries. While there are numerous proposed explanations for this persistent gender wage gap—including women choosing to work in lower-paying jobs or working fewer hours than men, leaving the workforce for caregiving responsibilities, or facing gender bias and discrimination —some have argued that simply increasing the representation of women in the workforce is enough to naturally eliminate the gap. We know that this ' add women and stir ' approach is important and can yield some improvements, but it isn't enough on its own to solve the persistent wage gap problem. However, we wondered whether there is a specific point where the proportion of women in a given occupation meaningfully affects how much they're paid compared to men. Our research, published in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal, found that having more women in a job category does, in some capacity, help close the wage gap. But there's a tipping point: Once women make up a certain proportion of an occupation, the wage gap narrows more slowly. This shift suggests the relationship is more complex than it might appear; it is not as simple as 'the more women, the smaller the gap.' The Research Our analysis focused on the Canadian labor market, which compared to the U.S. offers a more representative view of OECD countries based on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index. The data is also widely inclusive of 40 diverse job categories like professional occupations, senior and middle management, office support, and care providers across different industries, making it particularly useful for examining the wage gap. The 40 job categories cover nearly all of Canadian employment. We analyzed 22 years of annual data from 1997 to 2018 for each of the job categories. For each job category, the gender wage gap is defined as female full-time workers' median earnings divided by male full-time workers' median earnings. Our results showed that the gender wage gap closed more quickly when there were fewer than 14% women in the category—in other words, when women were more underrepresented. But once women made up a certain proportion of the occupation—the 'tipping point'—progress continued but at a much slower pace. For example, before the tipping point, adding just 1 percentage point more women to a job category, say from 8% to 9%, shrinks the wage gap noticeably. But after that point, progress slows such that it takes adding about 3.6 percentage points more women, say from 20% to 23.6%, to achieve the same improvement. Why Is There a Tipping Point? The 14% data point we identified echoes findings from Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter's landmark work on tokenism. Kanter's research examined group dynamics when one group heavily outnumbers another, defining a 'skewed' group as one where there's 85:15 majority-to-minority ratio. Up to the point of 15%, underrepresented individuals are known to face polarization from the majority or be pressured to conform to stereotypes. Ultimately, these people are often seen as symbols or 'tokens' rather than individuals, and may feel isolated based on how they are treated. However, their sparse presence and anomaly status also heightens their visibility. And when there are social or legal pressures to improve equity or to achieve diversity goals —in our case, to improve gender equity specifically—the incentives to protect the organization's reputation and image may motivate companies to increase the proportion of women and/or improve pay equity. In short, a more deliberate effort is made to close the gap and early gains are made. However, once these initial gains are achieved and the pressure lessens, organizations may assume the problem is resolved and scale back their efforts too soon. As women become better represented, it can create a perception that gender barriers are breaking down and that equity is improving. Akin to reaching a 'false summit,' where a hiker mistakenly believes they have reached the top of a mountain when there is still more to climb, organizations might make the hasty determination that pay equity has been sufficiently achieved and cease making changes. Making Headway Despite a slowdown in the closure of the gender wage gap after the tipping point, there is some good news. Our analysis found that by 2002, there were meaningful improvements in the wage gap across almost all occupations compared to 1997. This improvement continued throughout the rest of the years studied, and by 2018 the wage gap was smaller for 36 of 40 occupations. As noted by Harvard economist and recent Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin, 'equalizing earnings within each occupation matters far more than equalizing the proportions by each occupation.' If pay equity within occupations is achieved, the overall wage gap shrinks, even if more societally embedded practices like occupational segregation remain. That said, we also found that those occupations with a rising share of female workers exhibited more improvement in the closure of the gender wage gap. Across the years of the study, for 31 of 40 occupations with improving female representation, the wage gap closed by an average of 10.6 percentage points from 1997 to 2018, almost twice the 5.6 percentage point average improvement for the nine occupations with declining female representation. Ultimately, closing the wage gap is about ensuring equal pay for equal work in concert with representation, and organizations not lessening efforts before real progress is made. . . . The false summit illusion we've identified doesn't mean pay equity is out of reach; it just means the journey takes longer than it first appears and organizations may be easing their efforts toward pay equity too soon. After the tipping point, our research also showed continued improvements in the wage gap closure, just at a slower pace, indicating that closing the gender wage gap requires both increasing representation and ensuring equal pay for equal work. Organizations must stay committed, push beyond early progress, and avoid complacency to achieve the sustained goal of pay equity.
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
NFF 'needs to do better' for Super Falcons
Former Nigeria forward Desire Oparanozie says the country's football federation (NFF) has "not done enough" to ensure its women's team remain ahead of their competition in Super Falcons opened their bid for a record-extending 10th Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title with a 3-0 win over Tunisia on lifted the trophy four times, including the most recent triumph in 2018, and thinks other countries have gained ground on the West Africans."A lot of teams have invested so much in their women's football - financial investment, facility investment - whatever it takes to make sure that you improve," Oparanozie told Newsday on the BBC World Service."We can see that it's getting to pay off, so no team is going to be a pushover."For Nigeria to get to that 10th title they have to put on a show to really get it. It's no longer going to be a walk in the park." Oparanozie, who had spells with clubs across Europe and in China, sees plenty of areas where the NFF can improve."I think the governing body haven't really done enough to actually make sure that the other African teams don't catch up with the Nigerian team," the 31-year-old said."They need to do better in every aspect."You can't boast of any standard structure when it comes to the football field. Facility-wise, we are lacking in that area."In terms of pay, I'm a big advocate on equal pay for women's football."And even if we can't get equal pay, whatever is due to the players… if it's peanuts, give it to them. You need to prioritise players' health as well." Super Falcons encouraged by 'Mission X' Despite flagging those issues, Oparanozie described Nigeria's performance against Tunisia in Casablanca as "dominant", although she also said the team were "very wasteful" in front of finishing fourth at the last edition of the finals in 2022, the NFF has branded the campaign to win the Wafcon title in Morocco as 'Mission X'.Super Falcons goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie says the focus on returning home with the trophy has helped foster a strong team spirit."They say there's power in the spoken word and the federation brought up this logo, Mission X, just to encourage us," said the 24-year-old, who recently signed for Brighton & Hove Albion Women in England."There are so many countries here competing for the same trophy and for them to tag that Mission X means they believe in us."Of course every team wants to stop Nigeria, but we do everything in our power to always be who we are."We know people want to be in our position and we know people want to take us down, but that's life. We always try as much as we can to keep up the good spirit."
