Pay Equity
YWCA Greater Pittsburgh’s Gender Pay Equity Initiative in partnership with Level Up Greater Pittsburgh Pay Equity Campaign is a collaboration between Black Women’s Policy Center (BWPC), Women and Girls Foundation (WGF), and YWCA Greater Pittsburgh to close the gender pay gap in the Pittsburgh region.
The campaign has a dual focus – encouraging regional employers to improve their pay practices and educating the community about the complexity of the gender pay gap.
Level Up Focus
3 Model Practices for Pay Equity
We are asking organizations across the region to uplift one or more of the following leading practices:
1. Salary History
Remove forms of questioning in applications and interviews that could introduce bias. Eliminate salary history questions from all stages of the hiring process. Eliminate “desired”, “minimum” and “estimated” salary questions from all stages of the hiring process.
2. Pay Transparency
Include information regarding salary in the original job posting or prior to the first interview. Communicate pay ranges early in the hiring process. Expect and be prepared for salary negotiations within the provided range as a regular part of the hiring process. Standardize the interview process where possible.
3. Compensation review
Monitor salary structure periodically for parity across all employees performing comparable roles. Ensure consistency in pay for new hires and merit increases in comparable roles. Be prepared to address any disparities that may come to light.
Tell Your Story
Collecting the real experiences of those navigating the gender pay gap provides great support to our advocacy efforts, builds community, and contextualizes the reality of the pay gap. Please join us by sharing your Pay Equity Story by filling out this form, or scan the QR code below.
Share Information
This year, Equal Pay Day is March 25. Equal Pay Day recognizes that to earn the same annual pay the average American man earned in 2024, the average American woman would have to work through the entirety of 2024 plus an extra 2.5 months into 2025. Equal Pay Day is an important milestone, but it obscures the reality that pay disparities are not the same for all women. The dates below show race and gender pay disparities by marking how far into 2025 each group of American women would have to work in order to earn the same pay the average American man earned in 2024.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Women: Monday, April 7, 2025
Mothers: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Black Women: Thursday, July 10, 2025
Latina Women: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Disabled Women: Thursday, October 23, 2025
Native and Indigenous Women: Tuesday, November 18, 2025
