Achieving pay equity is a foundational act of building an environment in which creativity can flourish. Taking the first step toward equality via pay empowers us to move forward, together, to address the more complex challenges that await. Comprehensive, math-based tools are available to assess the problem. Let’s put them to work. Follow the money (or lack thereof), and fix pay inequity now. — fastcodesign.com
Jeanne Gang's firm Studio Gang recently scrutinized their office for any existing pay gap. She explains that despite their prioritization of equality there was in fact a small gender pay gap in their office.
Using her own practice as an example, Gang urges every architecture studio to go through the same process. Gang calls for other firms to "use the assessment tools, determine where you are, and make the needed adjustments" citing this step as the the easiest and most concrete way to correct inequality in the workplace.
11 Comments
So, how much do they get paid now? The article doesn't say. Am I supposed to take her word for it? Does FastCo usually just hand over their reporting and editing to unreliable sources?
Smells like another convergence of cynical media and politically savvy PR departments.
How much do you get paid, Chemex? Can I just take your word for it?
The amount isn't the issue of the article. The equity is.
The amount isn't the issue? That seems like the central thesis of the article. How exactly they got to pay equity seems important if we are going to take the article seriously. Did they lower the salaries of other staff members? Who knows?
The editorial ethics of this article raises more questions than anything. I'm interested to find out the answers, if FastCo had actual editors and reporters.
Didn't realize that Gang has a free media pass. Rem-babies will always be suspect-- all expert media manipulators.
Achieving pay equity is a foundational act of building an environment in which creativity can flourish.
Didn't she know that when she was still underpaying her female staff? What made her "see the light"? That pay gap shouldn't have been there in the first place, now the closing of it is used as a PR move...
Glad the gap is closed though.
This is a pretty cynical take on it. I read a lot on this topic, and my sense is that a lot of the gap arises from 'unconscious bias' - which even the most enlightened among us have. And it's so difficult to deal with because it's, well, unconscious - you don't really know what your own biases are. That's why it's critical that all companies (not just architecture) do an annual salary analysis to ensure parity. The gaps just creep in because we're biased humans - but if we accept that and commit to looking at the real data we can make the necessary corrections.
Yes it's a cynical take because she's trying to score a +1 by simply doing what should've been arranged from the get-go.
When I worked at an amazing firm in Philly and they realized their entire middle level of staff was being underpaid they gave us all raises. I don't know how much anyone else was making, and our experience levels varied as did our genders and backgrounds - but they realized (based on interviewing for new people who were asking for more, and then asking around at other firms what comparable pay was) that they were not paying any of us enough - so they chose to give us all raises without us having to ask. That is comparable to what Gang did - made moves to be fairer and treat their employees well, across the board. This is *good* for firm culture.
Are you sure they didn't realise they were underpaying? Or did reality finally caught up with them...and they came out with it rather than having the newbees spill the beans about their earnings? Did they compensate for the missed salary in the past or only for the future?
My girlfriend had the same situation, her boss "didn't realise" he underpaid her entire department for a really long time. The money saved like this made it very easy to immediately fix the "oversight".
Sorry but people in those higher up positions "don't realise" those kind of "mistakes" only when it benefits them...
Good gesture, but meh. Starchitects do not pay livable wages anyways, so who the f really cares?
think the moral of this story is, if you can manipulate media to get a disproportionate amount of attention on your work vs. similar quality firms (writing editorials yourself helps!), then you too will (eventually) be able to offer pay equity (maybe) and then write self-congratulatory editorials that continue the cycle
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