Equal Pay Day is on March 25th, 2025
Equal Pay Day 2025 is on March 25 and marks the current state of the gender pay gap for women: 83% for full-time, year-round workers and 75% for all workers (including part-time and seasonal). To be a part of the solution vs. the problem, allies advocate for equal pay because it is important that everyone is paid fairly. This is not just good for women, it is also good for all genders.
Financial stress is the single biggest issue households face. The gender pay gap can negatively affect men by causing increased stress and tension within the family. This is due to the fact that men may need to work longer hours to make up for the lower earnings of women or take on the role of the primary earner when unprepared. Ultimately, the unfair pay hurts the well-being of the entire household.
How did Equal Pay Day get started?
The day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. They chose this date to symbolize how many days women, and people of color, must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.
Why is pay equity still a problem today?
According to LeanIn, women in the U.S. earn just 84 cents for every $1 earned by men. It’s critical to note that the pay gap varies significantly among different communities, particularly for women of color – see the full 2025 calendar reported below:
- All Women’s Equal Pay Day – March 25th
- Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Women’s Equal Pay Day – April 7th
- Moms’ Equal Pay Day – May 6th
- LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day – June 17th
- Black Women’s Equal Pay Day – July 10th
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Women’s Equal Pay Day – August 28th
- Latina Equal Pay Day – October 8th
- Disabled Women’s Equal Pay Day – October 23rd
- Native Women’s Equal Pay Day – November 18th
Women face many headwinds that contribute to the pay gap: negative stereotypes activated when they attempt to negotiate, non-promotable tasks that hold them back from doing more visible work, and the broken rung where they are less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts doing the same job with similar performances.
Address Negative Stereotypes
Our brains are hardwired to recognize patterns and make assumptions. We all have biases. It is about understanding your own and having intervention strategies to overcome them in the moment before taking action.
Ninety-five percent of people have gender bias and assume women are caregivers and men are providers. These biases can lead to activation of outdated stereotypes that can harm women’s career advancements and promotion and pay opportunities. Studies show women in the childbearing years are less likely to get promoted or receive pay increases, and men as fathers are more likely to receive promotions and pay increases because they are are seen as providers. Curious if you have bias? Take a free and anonymous assessment here. My ally, Kristen Pressner has a wonderful tool, the “Flip It to Test It” model where you simply ask, “if this were a man, would we say the same thing” or vice versa to root out bias in the moment.
Make Non-Promotable Tasks Equitable
According to Harvard Business Review, Are You Taking on Too Many Non-Promotable Tasks, authors define non-promotable tasks as “essential but not directly career-advancing.” These tasks contribute to the functioning of an organization but don’t necessarily lead to promotions or recognition. They generally fall into three categories: tasks are not instrumental to your organization’s mission. are often not visible to others and may not require specialized skills and many people can do them. These tasks are harmful to women’s careers because they are often behind-the-scenes or not visible, time-consuming and distractions form regular work and administrative or less enjoyable in nature.
Examples of non-promotable tasks include:
- Administrative tasks: Taking meeting minutes, managing office supplies, scheduling appointments, proofreading, cleaning up slide decks, gathering resumes, and compiling interview notes.
- Logistical tasks: Onboarding new hires, organizing events, setting up for meetings.
- Social/cultural tasks: Mentoring colleagues, organizing team-building activities, promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives.
There is unfair social pressure for women to say yes to doing these tasks or they risk not feeling like a team player. Not only should women feel empowered to say “no” or “I have other priorities”, but allies need to speak up too. If you notice the majority of non-promotable tasks are assigned to women, say something, volunteer to help, strive to level out the load.
Disrupt the Broken Rung
According to the McKinsey Women in the Workplace report, for every 100 men promoted, only 81 women are promoted, a number that gets worse for many women of color. This gap persists over time. More women than men continue to pursue higher education, yet their career progression stagnates at the first promotion, a leading indicator of the continued lack of women in C-suite representation worldwide.
This is called the broken rung. You might be familiar with the glass ceiling analogy where women only get promoted to a certain position, usually middle management, or the sticky floor where women struggle to advance from front-line positions. According to Glass Hammer, an organization dedicated to advancing women since 2007, the broken rung is key because “The more women who get past the first rung, the more women can occupy all rungs—and that is how we shatter the glass ceiling.”
To disrupt the broken rung, realize that this issue, like gender bias, is systemic in nature. WOmen need access to equitable experience capital roles like managing profit and loss responsibilities and highly visible roles like technology or innovation. Caretaking has loads of transferable skills in the workplace, so it should not be seen as a distraction, as another skillset women can bring as they still continue to manage most of the household labor and caretaking roles of others. Allies need to more proactive with their pipelines for talent and start much earlier to advertise roles for women so that they can see themselves reflected in the organization.
Next Pivot Point offers custom solutions and education programs to help you help leaders engage in gender equality conversations. Schedule some time with our team today to discuss next steps.