Today is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, which draws attention to the disappointing reality that in the United States, Black women earn just $0.62 for every dollar compared to white men. The wage gap facing women of color—particularly Black women—is directly tied to disparities across education, healthcare, access to childcare, and homeownership.
Gap Inc. was founded with equality built into our D.N.A.: In 1969, Doris and Don Fisher started the company with the same equity stake, back when most women weren’t expected in the building, let alone in the board room. This simple but meaningful fact helped pave the way for our business, guided by a north star of being Inclusive, by Design in everything we do.
To help break systemic barriers, Gap Inc. is committed to continually building a truly inclusive company dedicated to fostering a culture of belonging for all our employees, customers, and the communities we serve. Our continued partnerships with Harlem Fashion Row, Black in Fashion Council, and the 15 Percent Pledge are just some of our efforts to promote long-lasting change alongside key partners and industry peers.
Our leadership in gender equity comes from a relentless focus on inclusion. For four consecutive years, the company has been listed in Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index.
In 2014, we were the first Fortune 500 company to validate that we pay women and men equally with an external firm. Since then, we’ve conducted annual reviews of our pay data by gender. Starting in 2020, we had an external firm assess our pay data by race and ethnicity for all U.S. employees who have identified their race or ethnicity. The external firm found no statistically significant underpayment of People of Color relative to White employees in the U.S., controlling for relevant factors (e.g., job level, geographic differences in labor cost, job tenure).
Equal pay for our employees is standard practice at Gap Inc., and we believe that when our business succeeds, we can become a stronger voice for equality and inclusion around the world. We are fortunate to have passionate leaders like Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Yolanda Sanders, who have helped shape our approach to pay equity across race and gender, including how we discuss salaries during performance reviews and advocating for pay transparency during recruitment.
For more information about our progress toward equal pay and our broader racial justice commitments, please visit https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/values/equality-belonging.
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