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.

Help us advocate for pay equity

Take the pledge

Cities across the United States have made remarkable progress in closing the gender pay gap. Despite being awarded the title of “America’s Most Livable City,” Pittsburgh and the surrounding region continue to struggle with pay equity, especially when it comes to women of color. Employers in the Greater Pittsburgh region have the power to close the gender pay gap. We are asking organizations throughout the Pittsburgh region to take the Pay Equity Pledge.

This pledge, developed by a working committee of local businesses, nonprofits, and organizations dedicated to racial, gender, and economic justice, has five pillars:

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

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

3. Provide annual organization-wide diversity trainings to address, reduce, and educate about unconscious biases and associated barriers that impact hiring, promotion, and organizational culture.

4. 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 organization tenure.

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

Tell your story

Collecting the real experiences of women navigating the gender pay gap provides great support to our advocacy efforts. Please join us by sharing your Pay Equity Story and by sharing the survey with the women in your network. Share your story here.

Share information

This year, Equal Pay Day was March 12. Equal Pay Day recognizes that to earn the same annual pay the average American man earned in 2023, the average American woman would have had to work through the entirety of 2023 plus an extra 2.5 months into 2024. 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 2024 each group of American women would have to work in order to earn the same pay the average American man earned in 2023.

White Women: Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Women: Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Black Women: Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Latina Women: Thursday, October 3, 2024
Native and Indigenous Women: Thursday, November 21, 2024

Contact your representative

The Paycheck Fairness Act takes steps to update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and works towards closing the gender pay gap. This bill implements the necessary steps to challenge discrimination and empower employers by:

  • Closing critical loopholes that allowed employers to justify paying workers unfairly,

  • Prohibiting employers from relying on salary history to set wages,

  • Preventing employers from retaliating against workers who discuss or disclose their wages, and

  • Collect much needed data to provide greater transparency.

  • Congress has the ability to change the economic trajectory for women – it’s time they act!

Contact your representative today and tell them it’s time to show their support for equal pay for equal work! Stand with working women by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act today!