"The WAGE Project" Comes to Wyoming

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Together, The Wyoming Women’s Foundation and the Women’s Studies program at the University of Wyoming are bringing the WAGE Project, Inc. to Wyoming. The WAGE Project will be hosting $tart $mart workshops across the state to raise consciousness regarding the wage gap, and to empower women to WAGE for equal pay. Educating Wyoming’s women is one crucial aspect of ending gender-based pay discrimination.

Another resource for education is Equality Initiatives, (EI). Through the use of a variety of marketing techniques, EI is working to improve statewide awareness regarding all aspects of gender equity in Wyoming. With roots in the Wyoming Community Foundation and a sponsored initiative with the Wyoming Women’s Foundation, more information about Equality Initiatives is available at: http://www.equalityinitiative.org

The WAGE Project, Inc. works to promote gender equality through equal pay. Headed by Evelyn F. Murphy, author of Getting Even, and Annie Houle, Campus and Communication Initiatives director, this non-profit is devoted to eradicating discriminatory wages based on gender. “Getting Even” is exactly what the project intends to pursue.

In order to positively impact change on an individual level, the WAGE Project hosts workshops. These workshops consist of three main sections: 1) Education, 2) Instruction, and 3) Negotiation.

Education
First, understanding the nature of the wage gap is crucial to changing the problem. For a number of reasons, Wyoming’s wage gap is the worst in the United States. Even after a series of research and awareness-raising, the wage gap has increased in Wyoming! According to the WAGE Project, undervaluing women’s work, occupational segregation, and disparities in hiring, promotion, and pay are just a few root causes for the wage gap.

Instruction
The next part of the workshop will include learning how to use a set of practical tools demonstrated by the WAGE Project. These tools include budgeting and a “wage calculator.” The wage calculator makes it possible for job-seeking women to accurately know and understand what a competitive and fair wage is for a certain job in a certain location. This is an invaluable tool, necessary for the third and final stage: negotiation.

Negotiation
Negotiation training is the final component to the workshop. This section of the workshop will provide valuable strategies for women to negotiate salary. When Wyoming women utilize “The Power of the Ask,” and assertively negotiate a fair and equal wage, one aspect of the gap could be drastically reduced. This is an empowering step in the right direction towards wage equality.

Come to one of the following workshops to learn about how you can WAGE war on Wyoming’s wage gap! There will be a variety of dates and locations during which Annie Houle of the WAGE Project will lead workshops around the state:

March 28, 9-12am, Laramie, Beta House, Medicine Bow room
March 29, 9-12 am, video conference workshops for outreach students across Wyoming
March 31, Casper Community College, 6.00-9.00PM, Krampert Theatre's Black Box
April 01, LCCC, Cheyenne, 1400 E College Drive, 11.00AM-2.00PM, Center for Conferences and Institutes, room 130
April 02, Northwest Community College, 2.00-5.00PM, Trapper Room