At first sight, Elana Schlenker's pop-up store, Less Than 100, which was open in Pittsburgh during the month of April appeared just like any other gift store. However, when shoppers went to pay, they were in for a surprise. That's because while men paid full price, women received a 24% discount.
Though that may appear to be blatant(公然的) discrimination, Elana was merely obeying the store's slogan “pay what you are paid”. And since women in the US get paid an average of 76 cents for every dollar men earn for the same job, it is only fair that they pay less.
As the store's pricing policy was not enough to get the message across, Elana also distributed pamphlets(小册子). Entitled “What Are Women Worth?”, it explained the status of the wage gap both in Pennsylvania and across the country, and also gave women tips on how to better negotiate salaries. A 2015 study conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research found that although the rate of women's income has been rising, men still earn more in every state in the country.
Though the Less Than 100 project will not resolve the wage inequality, it is a thought-provoking way to bring to the forefront an issue that is increasingly causing a lot of worry among women. Fortunately, Elana is not the only one trying to change the unfair system. Ellen Pao, appointed as the temporary CEO of Reddit, recently announced that new employees would be forbidden from negotiating salaries. She believes that men are better negotiators than women, and therefore, tend to receive higher wages!
What's encouraging is that male CEOs are also joining the fight! Earlier this month, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff launched a companywide program to address the issue. Called “Women Surge” it aims to remove all gender-based pay inequalities, hire and promote more women and ensure that they are better included in meetings! With all these visionaries taking the lead, it will not be long before gender pay inequality is something we will only read about in history books!