http://www.king5.com/money/equal-pay-day-bake-sale/129608162
D. (Un) Equal Pay Day Bake Sale:
Women in Washington State working full-time, year round, make just 77¢ to a man’s $1. The paycheck bite is even bigger for women of color and moms This big bite out of women’s paychecks keeps families strapped, limits women’s ability to invest in education or save for retirement, and results in less local spending at local businesses. MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground grassroots organization of more than a million people that is working to achieve economic security for all families, asked the entering agency to generate awareness on the wage gap on April 12th, Equal Pay Day The goal: remind everyone that we still have wage gaps in 2016 and to encourage Washington State to take steps to move toward equal pay for all women.
Strategy
The agency and MomsRising developed an #EqualPay Day Bake Sale with a twist: Sweet treats with gender-based pricing to take the bite out of wage gap. Men would “pay” $1, women just $.77, with extra discounts for women of color and moms (treats were by donation only). MomsRising and partners Legal Voice, and the Economic Opportunity Institute handed out hundreds of the baked goods at the UnEqual Bake Sale to a crowd at Westlake Park in Seattle in April 2016. State Sen. Jayapal, Rep. Farrell, Councilmember González, Plum Bistro owner Makini Howell, and speakers from MomsRising talked about a sweet recipe for strong families and a strong economy: equal pay for equal work.
Since women are still expected to pay full price for goods and services, and cookies, despite earning 20% less than men, the least we can do is give them a break on Equal Pay Day! Soapbox drafted pun-y messaging and talking points, and reached out to media to cover the issue. We developed strong images for the event and for social media with a retro bake sale style and messaging about supporting working families by closing the gender wage gap.
Results
Hundreds of people in downtown Seattle participated in the event and learned about unequal pay through a sweet treat and elected officials, business leaders, and activists were engaged on the issue, as well as the general public. The Seattle Times ran a front-page feature story on the gender wage gap in the tech industry which featured the event and photos of the women there. Also in the Times: “5 things to know about equal pay in Seattle” and a community engagement piece, “Tell us: What can we do to narrow the pay gap?” which both featured the event, talking points from MomsRising and photos from the event; and a Times photo gallery from the event. KING-TV interviewed MomsRising CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner in-studio the morning before the event on the wage gap and featured the event on the evening news. The UnEqual Bake Sale and the issue of unequal pay were featured on in dedicated pieces on KOMO-TV, KIRO-FM, and in The Stranger, each highlighting MomsRising’s messaging about Washington state can do to close the gender wage gap.
