CLOSING THE GAP

This week’s newsletter is written by CNBC Make It work reporter Morgan Smith. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @thewordsmithm.

Two summers ago, as the Covid-19 pandemic ripped through New York, Niani Tolbert feared she was about to hit rock bottom. 

She had lost her job as a tech job recruiter months earlier. “I didn’t know how I’d afford to stay in New York City or where my career was going,” Tolbert says. 

That June, she watched as millions of people took to the streets to protest the police killing of George Floyd — and while she wasn’t comfortable joining the crowds and risking exposure to the virus, watching the marches stirred something within her. 

The best contribution she could make to the racial justice movement, Tolbert decided, was donating her expertise as a recruiter to help other people of color, like her, who were struggling to find work during the pandemic. 

On LinkedIn, she asked if other HR professionals would join her in reviewing the resumes of 19 Black women in honor of Juneteenth. More than 500 people responded – so the 29-year-old turned the initiative, called #HireBlack, into her full-time job, with the goal of getting 10,000 Black women hired or promoted.

Tolbert (who’s now CEO) and her team work with top companies such as Amazon, Uber and Disney to recruit and hire Black women.

#HireBlack is also aiming to close the stark pay gap Black women face: Black women working full time, year-round make just 67 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, the National Women’s Law Center reports. 

The organization has helped Black women boost their collective earnings by more than $2 million, with some women seeing pay raises as high as $60,000. 

Conversations about money can call up uncomfortable emotions for Black women, who are often told that they have to work twice as hard to be considered successful, Tolbert says. 

“It instills a feeling of putting your head down and being grateful for whatever opportunities you’re given, not to challenge how much you’re getting paid, which discourages Black women from speaking up and negotiating their salaries,” she says. 

Bias and discrimination contribute to this disparity, research has shown. But Tolbert says the wage gap also exists because Black women don’t negotiate their salaries as often as their white peers, and when they do, are less successful during negotiations. 

Tolbert experienced this inequity firsthand: On a freelance project, she says she was once paid $5,000 while her white colleague was being paid $30,000 for the same work.

The experience made her feel “overwhelmed, discouraged and undervalued,” Tolbert recalls. Companies will use these negative emotions, she adds, and secrecy to their advantage “to underpay women and minorities.” 

That’s where #HireBlack comes in: Tolbert and her team empower Black women to examine their feelings about money and develop a clearer understanding of their unique needs in terms of pay and nonmonetary benefits. 

#HireBlack also offers a free crowdsourced salary database and virtual workshops that walk people through the various factors that determine salaries, including location and previous experience.

“Black women have to be their own best advocate in the workplace,” Tolbert adds. “We want to arm them with all the information, resources and encouragement they need to lead a successful negotiation.”

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