Fighting Pay Inequity One Woman at a Time
Evanston, WY
Christy Etheridge, one of the Wyoming Women’s Foundation’s board members, has a unique commitment to pay equity and education about negotiation in the workplace for Wyoming women.
Christy lives in Evanston, WY, and became interested in the Wyoming Women's Foundation when First Lady Nancy Freudenthal spoke at the Healthy Woman conference in Evanston, WY Christy organized. Christy has been a member of WyWF’s Advisory Board since January of 2008.
“Pay equity is important because is provides people a fair starting point,” Christy said. “Women need to know that their efforts are as valuable in the workforce as men’s.”
Christy's efforts to impact the gender wage gap in Wyoming sprang from personally experiencing the gap. Christy came face to face with the wage gap when she took a job at a medical facility. "Once I interviewed and accepted the position, I realized that the starting wage did not reflect the scope of my responsibilities. This is certainly an area that needs to be approached through the WAGE Project, as job descriptions do not always list all responsibilities or ones that may develop. That is when I realized how important your starting pay is and how your salary determines the amount of your future pay raises."
A self-starter from the beginning, Christy took it upon herself to find alternative ways of raising her salary. Through grant writing, community involvement, visibility and education, Christy created a more suitable position and became committed to positively impacting Evanston women's negotiating skills. Christy will lead a training program which entails explaining how the wage gap happens, creating personal budgets, wage negotiating skills, how to research competitive wages and understanding the raise schedule, so that women are aware of how important their starting base salary is.
“In an ideal world, the WyWF would be able to focus on more long term sustainability and on more legislative aspects of women's deeper issues,” Christy said. “Once we get the gender gap closed, there will still be women that need education and influence concerning domestic violence, running for office, reproductive rights, budgeting and self-sufficiency. Just because you make a sustainable wage, that doesn't mean you know how to start a retirement account or prepare for a campaign.”
Her unique commitment to pay equity and career education for women doesn’t limit Christy’s ambition in any way. “I would also like to see us be able to do more for the women on the Wind River Reservation and perhaps participate in a global initiative,” Christy said.
As always, our board members bring their skills and drive to the table in order to help women gain economic self-sufficiency in Wyoming. When women and girls prosper, communities thrive. With the work of women like Christy, women and girls in Wyoming are certainly poised to prosper!
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