Restaurant Minds the Pay Gap by Charging Women 79 Cents on the Dollar

A clever way to commemorate Equal Pay Day

Despite the many strides that have been made in gender equality, women still earn just 79 cents on the dollar compared to men — and to remind everyone of that harrowing fact and the efforts to narrow said disparity, beginning in 1996 every second Tuesday in April has been declared Equal Pay Day.

A restaurant and bakery mini-chain in New Hampshire called The Works is observing today's occasion by giving women a corresponding discount, reports New Hampshire Public Radio: Female customers who visit one of four locations today will only be charged 79 percent of their total bill, while men will pay the usual full price.

Of course, giving women cheaper bagels and coffee one day a year won't do much to actually help their bottom lines, but the company hopes the gesture will help raise awareness for the gender pay gap: "In terms of highlighting the issue, I think it’s a relatively inexpensive way to do that ... It brings it right to the fore in a way just the statistic does not," one of The Works' managers tells NHPR.

For the other 364 days of the year there's always the Equipay app, which helps diners split the bill fairly by considering gender, social, and racial inequalities. (Said app is not actually real, and was created as part of a recent comedy hackathon in San Francisco.)

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