Close the Wage Gap

It’s 2012 and there is still a persistent gap between what women earn and what men earn. This is counter to the notion many people might have that the gap is a relic of past generations. Unfortunately it is still alive and well, but we want to make this gap a thing of the past.

The purpose of our website is to educate users about the gender wage gap and arm them with information and negotiation tools to eliminate it. By merging data from multiple sources and tapping into our negotiation know-how, we have developed innovative ways to help users take their own steps towards closing the wage gap. • Our “welcome page” provides background about the mission of the website—to close the gender wage gap. It also presents facts about the gap, a breakdown of the gap by occupation and information about the role that negotiation plays in causing the gap. • In the “Show me the money” tab, we combine data on earnings from salary.com with data on the gender wage gap from the Department of Labor to provide data customized for women—easy to understand graphics showing what a typical woman and a typical man earn in her occupation and geographic location. In this module women can see how the disparity between men’s and women’s earnings grows over time. • The “Ask for it” tab helps women to become more effective negotiators. This section provides concrete negotiation tips and a preparation worksheet to help women plan their negotiation strategy. Interactive videos coach women through several negotiation scenarios by showing how bosses might respond to a negotiation attempt and providing some ideas about how to counter these responses. • The “Find out more” tab provides resources for women to read more about how to negotiate effectively and a list of organizations that are working hard to close the gender wage gap.
Our website creatively addresses the four challenge goals. Our “welcome page” helps to educate women about the wage gap and its causes, and enables informed decision- making when selecting a career path. The “show me the money” module provides greater access to pay data by gender with easy to understand graphics. The “ask for it” module helps women become more effective negotiators by providing expert negotiation advice and interactive instructional videos. The “find out more” module addresses the challenge goal of providing access to other resources and communities that will help women advance in their careers.

Our team is made up of dedicated individuals from Carnegie Mellon University with expertise in gender, negotiation, information systems, and data analysis. Spurred by our own experiences and a desire to improve the situation many women find themselves in, we’ve developed this website to help women close the gender wage gap.