In this brief video, Mary Schiller of PriceLikeAGirl.com addresses the persistent gender pay gap in the United States, noting that women still earn roughly 20% less than men for comparable work—a reduction from historic 40% gaps but still significant. She cites a 2016 Inc.com article reporting an eBay study where female sellers of identical new items earned 19.7% less than male sellers, despite similar ratings and product quality. Interpreting this as evidence that women entrepreneurs often underprice their offerings, Schiller urges women business owners to take control by raising their prices by at least 20%. She frames price adjustment as a concrete, actionable step toward narrowing the pay gap, asks viewers to share what they could increase by 20% in the comments, and reinforces the belief that women are generally undercharging despite delivering amazing value.
Chapters
Hello, this is Mary Shiller with you today of pricelikeagirl.com and also maryshiller.com. And I want to talk to you in this brief video about the pay gap that seems to exist based on gender and offer a way that we might start to fix it. So in the United States, it's very well documented that women are still making significantly less than men for doing the same work. I want to say it's around 20% less. I haven't looked at the exact figure recently, but it's somewhere in that range. I know when I was younger it was 40% less. So I don't know, am I supposed to be grateful that now it's only 20? I don't know. But anyway, this is well documented and it's significant. I mean, 20%, even if it's better than 40%, is still significantly less. And I started asking myself, you know, how can we fix this? How can we kind of take control of the situation and fix it? This morning I was reading an article from last year on inc.com, inc.com, that really brought this point home. So some researchers did a study of sales on eBay. And they were looking at female sellers and male sellers where there was some way you could tell if you were interacting with a female seller and a male seller. And this was the thing that got to me. These sellers were selling the exact same new items, not used items, but new items. There was no difference in what they were selling. Their, uh, Ratings or whatever, reviews were very, very similar, so there was no big difference there. And would you believe— you probably would— the women sellers, again selling the same new items as their male counterparts, got 19.7% less. That's right, 19.7% less than their male counterparts. So my next thought was, you and I as women in business need to raise our prices at least 20%. So that's my question to you today. What is something that you offer, whether it's a product or a service, on which you could raise the price today 20%? Because it looks to me like that is one way we have the ability to start closing this gender gap. In terms of pay. We are in charge of what we charge. We're in charge of what we charge, and we can change this. You know you're offering something amazing to people. I know you're offering something amazing to people. Yet I am positive, because of all the interactions I've had with women entrepreneurs over the years, including myself, I am positive you are undercharging. So in the comments, I'd like you to tell me What can you raise your price on starting today by at least 20%? Thanks for watching, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.