The gap between men’s and women’s wages has gradually narrowed since Equal Pay Day kicked off in 1996 as a public awareness campaign to boost women’s wages, but Angela Reynolds is adamant, “It’s not a day of celebration.”

Women in the U.S. earn only 82 cents for each dollar paid to men, and many minority women earn far less compared to their male counterparts, according to a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center.

Equal Pay Day, which was March 12 this year, is the date that represents how far into the new year women must work to earn the same amount white men earned the prior calendar year.

But that date tracks women’s pay overall and doesn’t make clear that many women minorities need to work weeks and months longer to catch up to men, says Reynolds, chief executive of the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh.

To promote pay equity in the Pittsburgh region, the YWCA and two other nonprofits — the Women and Girls Foundation and Black Women’s Policy Center — created Level Up, a campaign that urges businesses to take a pledge to commit to being more transparent about hiring and salary practices, especially for women of color.

Black women, who earn 70 cents on the dollar compared with men, according to Pew, won’t catch up to men’s 2023 wages until July 9 this year. Latina women fare even worse. They earn 65 cents on the dollar compared with men; their equal pay day won’t occur until Oct. 3.

Angela Reynolds, chief executive, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh. Photo courtesy of YWCA Greater Pittsburgh.

Rochelle Jackson, founder and chief executive, Black Women’s Policy Center. Photo courtesy of Black Women’s Policy Center.

“We need buy-in from employers,” says Rochelle Jackson, founder and chief executive of the Black Women’s Policy Center, who believes Black and Latina women are the “most disenfranchised” by the gender wage gap.

A 2022 report from the Black Women’s Policy Center found poverty was the top issue for Black women in the region.

“And pay equity is one of the factors that perpetuates that cycle of poverty,” says Jackson.

Women of color are usually “the kin-keepers” who frequently are responsible for family finances as well as caregiving duties, says Camila Rivera-Tinsley, chief executive of the Women and Girls Foundation.

Level Up “is really about that economic piece and making sure women are financially able to be those kin-keepers,” she says.

To date, 13 organizations have committed to the Level Up pledge at the C-suite executive level, says Natalia Goodnow, mission expansion coordinator at the YWCA. Among them are nonprofits Global Links and the FISA Foundation.

The campaign is reaching out to companies and nonprofits of all sizes and counts representatives of large firms on its steering committee, including Giant Eagle, UPMC, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, says Reynolds.

The pledge calls for employers to provide transparency about pay during the hiring process; eliminate questions about salary history; provide diversity training; hold annual reviews of gender and race pay discrepancies; and comply with the National Labor Relations Act.

While Level Up launched in 2022, its outreach efforts “are ramping up this year,” says Jackson.

Camila Rivera-Tinsley, CEO of the Women & Girls Foundation. Photo by Sebastian Foltz.

Its first roundtable discussion, scheduled for March 28, will feature Maisha Howze, a Pittsburgh consultant and author of “Hidden Gems: Black Women in the Workplace.” Register for the free event here.

The partners who spearheaded Level Up acknowledge their efforts are an outgrowth of a 2019 report from the city’s Gender and Equity Commission that spelled out dire conditions for Black residents, particularly Black women, including high levels of poverty and maternal health risks.

The commission was created by a city ordinance in 2016 and, until 2021, employed an executive director charged with overseeing research and making recommendations for how the city could reduce discriminatory practices against women.

But it’s been inactive since 2022.

Asked about the status of the commission and its work, Mayor Ed Gainey’s office said in a statement that it plans to “relaunch” the commission in late spring.

The commission “has been on pause the last two years as we assessed the progress of the [commission], met with stakeholders and strategized on how to center the communities that are most impacted by inequitable systems,” the statement said.

Amanda Neatrour, partner with EnterChange Group, a consulting firm for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and a former chair of the commission, says it lost momentum when its executive director left and was not replaced.

“It no longer had an administrator to move it along,” she says.

Neatrour hopes Level Up garners “the traction and support it needs and deserves” among employers.

“Gender equity can’t just be a buzzword and the hot thing,” says Neatrour. “It’s such a big issue that it requires a handful of organizations to say, ‘This matters to me and I’ll invest the time, money and energy into seeing this through.’”

Amanda Neatrour, partner with EnterChange Group. Photo courtesy of Amanda Neatrour.

Alison Alvarez, co-founder and chief executive of BlastPoint, an East Liberty firm that develops artificial intelligence systems, hasn’t yet been approached to take the Level Up pledge but calls it “a great mission.”

As a Latina, Alvarez experienced challenges in her early career because she lacked financial resources and business connections, she says.

As a business owner, “I think about pay equity a lot,” she says.

Of her approximately 50 employees, 40% are women and 20% are Black or Latina.

“I’m pretty transparent [about salary] … and the people I hire aren’t afraid to negotiate.”

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