Latinx women are the most adversely affected by the gender pay gap. According to Equal Pay Today!, they typically earn only 54 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. November 20th symbolizes how far into 2019 Latinx women must work in order to earn the same pay white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2018. This is not equity, and this is not okay.
Women, including Latinx women, should not have to work far into the next year to earn what a man would earn the previous year. Veronica Juarez, VP of Social Enterprise and executive sponsor of Lyft’s employee resource group, UpLyft Unidos, says:
“Data supports that Latinx women are not paid fairly. So it doesn’t escape me one moment that the work I’m doing at Lyft -- working to provide access to transportation for some of our most vulnerable communities, often communities of color -- comes down to issues of access and opportunity. Latina Equal Pay Day is yet another reminder and opportunity for me as a Vice President Latinx woman to continue advocating, influencing and challenging the status quo. Having the opportunity to shape and groom the next generation of Latinx/Hispanic leaders at Lyft is one of the many reasons why I became the executive sponsor for Uplyft Unidos (Latinx/Hispanic), the employee resource group, and advise a venture capital fund, VamosVentures, committed to investing in Latinx entrepreneurs.
I am proud to work at a company that is proactively assessing its policies and are committed to ensuring its pay practices are fair. While I know there is still more work to be done, I remain encouraged knowing that Lyft is doing what we can to help improve these societal issues.”
Jessica Garcilazo, a Creative Producer and Uplyft Unidos Lead at Lyft, shared her experience as well:
“Equal pay is about more than just a paycheck. Equal pay affects the food we can eat, the places we live, the healthcare we access, and the education we receive. As a Latinx womxn I was raised to work hard, land a job, and be grateful for having one. I never thought to question whether I was being paid the same as my white male counterparts.*
For many years, I remained grateful for just being in the room. I figured my work ethic would be the thing to get me to the highest level and that equal pay was a given. One day while chatting with my male colleagues, I found out that they had come into the role at a much higher pay rate, even though I had more years of experience. I was angry about the unfairness, and also very disappointed in that company. It was then that I began taking steps to get the fair pay I deserved and got more curious about equal pay for all womxn and people of color in the workplace.
While I do my part to help womxn in my life through mentorship and negotiation support, I know the pay gap is a systemic problem, not a womxn problem. It is a problem for companies to tackle, for hiring managers to reinforce, and for male allies who hold privilege to make a priority. Until we have pay equity for all womxn, we must be relentless in our pursuit of what is right. Equal pay starts with us!”
Last month, Lyft released its 2019 Inclusion and Diversity Report, which showed that our efforts to increase representation have begun to show positive outcomes for Latinx and Women in Leadership. And as we continue working to make sustained progress on that front, we also strive to be a company that is trusted to provide equal pay for all of our team members.
*Here are a few things we’re doing at Lyft to ensure that our pay practices are equitable across lines of race and gender:
Creating “Career Pathways” to provide a framework to appropriately level team members and anchor against for promotion decisions and performance evaluations
Conducting unconscious bias training for all manager-level employees
Continuing annual pay equity audits
To learn about Lyft’s pay equity analysis and efforts, be sure to check out this Lyft blog post from our Chief People Officer, Emily Nishi.
*Womxn is an intersectional term used as an alternative to "women" to be more inclusive of transgender women and women of color.