The Gender Pay Gap is Real and this Pop-Up Shop is Doing Something About It

Less Than 100 is highlighting the gender pay gap.

We know that women are worth a lot. But it seems like a lot of companies don’t think that women are worth all that much…

The gender pay gap is a real thing. According to the Pew Research Center, women earn 84 percent of what men earn. By that estimate, it would take a woman 40 days to earn what a man did by the end of the previous year.

While that fact is gross, there are plenty of women who are working their asses off to close the gender pay gap. One such woman is Elana Schlenker, a pop-up shop owner in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Less Than 100, Schlenker’s pop-up shop, is pretty unique. The shop sells products at two different prices. Dazed Digital reports there’s a price for men and a price for women, “Less Than 100 offers a 24 per cent discount to women, in the hope of raising awareness of the current gender pay gap in Pennsylvania.” The gender pay gap in Pennsylvania is similar to the overall pay gap, reports Dazed Digital, “Women in full-time work earn 76 cents to every dollar a man earns.”

When interviewed by Refinery29, Schlenker said that the bias against women in the workplace is “deeply unconscious.” Because so many people value men and women differently, Schlenker hopes her shop’s pricing will “underscore this inherent unfairness and to create space for people to consider why the wage gap still exists.”

So, what type of gear can you grab at Schlenker’s shop? Everything from stationary and prints, to clothing and ceramics. Schlenker has stocked her store with merchandise from “independent female artists from across the United States.” All of the women involved have agreed to sell their things at a reduced price. The shop is “not for profit” and all the money it makes goes back to the artists whose work resides in the shop.

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 Image: Less Than 100 Facebook page

Abbie Stutzer

Writer, editor, and owner of Ginchy!, a freelance writing and editing company, and home funeral hub. Adores smart sex ed, sustainable ag, spooky history, women's health, feminism, horror, wine, and sci-fi.