Closing the Nonprofit Sector’s Gender Pay Gap
Sadly, in the United States a gender pay gap of 22% still exists. In practically every corner of the workforce, women earn less than men. While the gap has become smaller over the years, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a U.S. think tank founded in 1987 that tracks wages, projects that at our current pace, it will be 2058 before women finally reach pay parity. Possibly more surprising and sobering is the reality that the gender pay gap is even greater in the nonprofit sector. Women Dominate Nonprofit Leadership; Lag in Pay Women in the nonprofit sector earn 25% less than their male counterparts noted Ruth McCambridge in Nonprofit Quarterly, reporting on a survey performed by the Bayer Center Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University. Peggy Outon, Bayer Center’s executive director said, “We’ve made some progress and gained some ground before the Great Recession [in 2008], but since then we’ve hit a plateau. Nonprofit boards of directors must own their responsibilities as employers and citizens and refuse to allow pay inequity to be the norm.” How to Close the Gender Pay Gap? Data shows that the wage gap is the smallest for young women. According to an estimate…