Isn’t it disturbing that gender pay gap is still a topic of discussion in the 21st century? Yes it’s nothing new, but it’s still is a problem many women face around the globe. Dating all the way back to 1960, the gender pay gap has seen several manifestations, one of which is newspapers continuing to publish separate job listings for men and women, for example. It should have been a red flag then, and it still is now.

Even though the work being done is identical, women have voiced time and again that they are being paid less. The reality is that the gender pay gap is still as relevant as it was 50 years ago, and it’s still a battle that women have to fight for daily.

A wage difference between men and women means less access to the same privileges in the long run; less money injected into her savings, less money kept aside for pension, less access to money for literally everything.

According to PayScale, statistics for the year 2020 show that men still earn 19% higher than women. Despite the fact that women do the same job with the same job description as men, they are still subject to earning less.

A major shift happening around the world

Whilst many companies are actively seeking to take a stand on this issue by hiring a workforce made up of twice as much women as men, there are new avenues today made available for women to get fairly rewarded and gain access to equal pay.

We can see that there is a major shift taking place in the employment front. Many people are opting to freelance, and a large proportion of those people are women. Digitization of work is the new norm – especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit – and shows a meaningful shift in our working patterns.

But do these shifts translate as well into the issue of pay equity? Let’s look into it using my experiences with Ureed.com as an example.

I landed my first gig a on Ureed.com as a content writer 5 months ago

At first, my gut somehow led me to believe that the pay gap will definitely exist here too. I thought it was just another platform, just another job where women were subject to less pay. Either way, I tightened my belt and decided to hang in there.

The first ever blog I had to write was a 500-word article for $25 USD. Not bad, right? That was just the beginning.

With time, constant work streamed in. I found myself typing away at different blogs.

The beauty of it all was that the topics were varied. The blog requests came from different clients who had very different business fronts. Every job I got was shiny and new.

One day I was writing about Virtual Reality for a company based in the UAE and the next I was writing about investments for startups. Over time, I wrote on an immense number of diverse topics – digital branding, digital marketing, manufacturing, home care and so much more. The list is endless. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to put in the effort too. You have to read, research, hone your skills. But the best thing about all this is that you’re never the loser. The effort you put in boomerangs back to your mind in the form of new information and skills.

…and I never thought about income inequality again!

You see on Ureed.com, the rates are set, so you know for a fact that your male counterpart will get the same amount if you both pursued the same gig. Rates are based on an amount of words that you have to meet in the article, so if I’m writing an article for $75 USD, my male counterpart will be paid the same.

No hidden pays, no unfair commission charges. Ureed.com works with transparency, especially because it’s an online platform which everyone, no matter their gender, age, or race, has access to, and through which everyone can see what different jobs cost.

Sounds fair enough, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t end there. Both you and your male counterpart stand an equal opportunity to land a gig on this platform. I was surprised when I was going through Ureed.com’s blogs to see who has been writing articles for them. Interestingly enough, all of their recent blogs have been written by women. That was actually very encouraging.

When you stumble across such platforms, the burden and mental agony of a history of suffering with gender pay gaps is alleviated little by little. When you don’t have to worry about the gender pay gap, you can focus your energy on producing quality work with motivation and eagerness. This assurance makes you want to put your best foot forward. It helps you give the work your all because you finally feel valued.

While the global issue of pay inequality is far from solved, it is encouraging to see that freelance platforms and sites offer a loophole for individuals to be paid and judged not on their gender, but on fixed rates and the quality of their work. Your credibility is based on your portfolio, your achievements, reviews from past clients and your work ethic.

As a community, we still have a long way to go. It is important that we stop valuing a person’s work based on their ethnicity, race, gender or religion. It’s imperative to start focusing on the quality of work that is being produced.

Final thoughts…

It’s already reassuring to see online freelance platforms helping bridge the gender pay gap. We need it to start somewhere. Hopefully, this example will help kindle a fire that many other corporations will follow. Women need to be paid equally.

Fair pay for everyone.

Transparency and equity are of the utmost importance to us at Ureed.com. Reach out to us now and start finding equal opportunities by signing up as a freelancer.