The National Equal Pay Task Force is currently running a contest to see who can develop an app that will help make pay disparity issues more transparent. The Equal Pay App Challenge seeks to accomplish at least one of the following goals:
- Greater access to gender, race and ethnicity pay data;
- Early career coaching tools;
- Negotiation guides, tips and critiques; and
- Online mentoring resources
The best app would be an executive career app that not only provides general information about pay, negotiating an employment agreement, and seeking out mentorship, but also turns gender, race and ethnic stereotypes on their head. By this I mean an app that acknowledges that people will have biases regardless of all our efforts to spotlight and diffuse them. But, that we can use those biases in negotiations and in interviews.
By no means am I excusing prejudices or discrimination in the workplace. In fact, my office is dedicated to fighting against discrimination. I am simply stating that many biases are subversive. For example, a financial services firm that has only had male partners and female subordinates for 30 years might want to diversify by promoting/hiring female partners. However, they might not realize how ingrained that hierarchy can be in their culture. Will female partners feel welcomed? Will the long standing male partners subconsciously revolt?
The point I am trying to make is that pay is only a symptom of the real problem. And yet it seems we are continuously trying to band-aid the symptoms and pretend that someday we will live in a world where prejudices don't exist. I welcome that world, but my biased perspective tell me it's unlikely we will get there without recognizing what is holding us back.
