- Early backers include a host of Canadian tech firms including, Traction on Demand, Allocadia, Kiite, Klipfolio, Beanworks, Thinkific
- Campaign calls on leaders to pledge prioritization of equal pay within their organizations
- Initiative provides a step-by-step toolkit to help business leaders from across small, medium and large organizations move to gender pay parity
- A woman makes $0.92 for every $1 made by a man in Canada, even after adjusting for differences in industries, occupations, and rate of part-time work.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unbounce today announced the launch of ‘Pay Up for Progress’, a new initiative aimed at urging business leaders to prioritize gender pay parity* within their organizations.
Leaders from across the business spectrum are being asked to take the ‘Pay Up for Progress’ pledge, confirming their commitment to prioritizing equal pay and undertaking the work needed to analyze and close the gender pay gap in their organizations.
According to recent statistics, a woman makes $0.92 for every $1 made by a man in Canada, even after adjusting for differences in industries, occupations, and rate of part-time work. Without adjustment, women make $0.87 for every $1 made by a man in Canada. The pay gap is wider for women facing multiple forms of discrimination, such as racialized women, trans women, and women living with disabilities.
Research also shows that when organizations make equal pay a priority, they’re 19% more likely to exceed industry-average levels of productivity and 54% more likely to beat industry-average turnover benchmarks.
A host of major Canadian tech firms have pledged early support for the initiative including, Traction on Demand, Allocadia, Kiite, Klipfolio, Beanworks, and Thinkific.
Strategic advisory partners involved in the initiative include, Minerva BC, the Upside Foundation, Shopify, 7Geese, Work at Play, Cicely Blain Consulting, Talent Collective, HR Tech Group, and Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.
“Having navigated this complex process ourselves and found a pay gap that we were able to close, we understand how daunting this work can be. It’s especially difficult for small and medium-sized businesses which have limited resources and don’t know where to start,” said Leslie Collin, VP People & Culture at Unbounce. “Pay Up for Progress is our way of sharing what we’ve learned and giving our peers a roadmap to take those first steps and ultimately achieve and sustain gender pay parity. This process isn’t about doing the work perfectly, but firmly committing to making a start and continually improving.”
As part of taking the pledge, leaders will commit to:
- Undertaking a compensation analysis in order to identify any potential gender pay gaps within their organizations
- Outlining a plan of action to address what is found
- Resourcing the work required to continually address pay parity over time
Unbounce will provide companies with a comprehensive compensation toolkit. Created by the team at Unbounce after their own journey reaching gender pay parity and backed by external experts, the toolkit offers a blueprint for how companies can begin to analyze their compensation and do the ongoing work to reach gender pay parity.
Unbounce founder & CEO Rick Perreault said, “The principle of gender pay parity couldn’t be simpler—everyone should receive equal pay for equal work. As leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure that’s the case in our organizations — the onus should no longer fall on our employees to ensure they’re being paid fairly. I hope this moment in time, when we’re all being forced to reevaluate, can be a catalyst and create a meaningful ripple effect, not only across the Canadian tech landscape but well beyond.”
Over a three month period, pledged companies will come together as a cohort to support and hold each other accountable. Through an active Slack community and two virtual workshops, companies will have access to experts in compensation, diversity and inclusion, and advancing women in leadership. The formal portion of the campaign will wrap at the beginning of February, 2021.
Organizations can take the pledge by following this link.
*Although there are different ways to define pay parity or equal pay, as a basis for its resource toolkit, Unbounce defined both in this way: self-identifying women and self-identifying men, in the same job and location, being paid fairly, relative to one another.
About Unbounce
Unbounce is the global leader in landing page and conversion optimization software empowering marketers to build and test landing pages without a web developer. As part of the company’s pursuit to give small businesses a competitive growth advantage, the landing page platform is helping marketers dramatically increase their conversions leveraging the Unbounce Conversion Intelligence™ technology. Founded in Vancouver, B.C., Unbounce is a people-first business, one of Canada’s most admired corporate cultures and has powered over one billion conversions worldwide. Connect with our growing community of marketers at Unbounce.com and @Unbounce.
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