Trusaic’s new online tool shows how much a Big Mac REALLY costs you, after adjusting the menu price for whatever pay gap you face
A new online tool called The Big Mac Pay Gap Index offers you a new way of understanding what the pay gap means for you and your buying power.
It shows you how much more a Big Mac would cost you, after adjusting the menu price of a Big Mac to reflect whatever pay gap you may face.
The Big Mac Pay Gap Index is the creation of Trusaic, a provider of equal pay compliance software.
“The pay gap can seem just an abstract idea”, says Matt Gotchy, Trusaic’s EVP of Marketing. “The Big Mac Pay Gap Index shows in a more concrete way how it impacts your daily buying power.”
So, if you experience a pay gap which means that you earn less than others, then the real cost of a Big Mac for you, once adjusted for your pay gap, is proportionately more than the menu price.
Since men, for example, earn on average 18% more than women, they face no gender pay gap – so the real cost of a Big Mac for them is the same as the average U.S. menu price: $6.05.
For women, however, the real cost of the Big Mac is not $6.05 but $7.38, due to the gender pay gap they experience.
The same approach then applies to not just the gender pay gap but also the race/ethnicity pay gap and the combined gender and race/ethnicity pay gap.
The new Big Mac Pay Gap Index is inspired by two older ideas.
The first is the pay gap itself – as in the gap between the average earnings of, say, different genders; or different race/ethnicities; or both combined.
The second is the Big Mac Index, the well-known currency comparison toolfirst developed by The Economist in 1986 as a guide to the buying power of different currencies – based on the cost of a Big Mac in different countries.
The Big Mac Pay Gap Index blends these two ideas to create a new way of understanding the pay gap.
Trusaic advises users of the Big Mac Pay Gap Index what they – we – can do to help close the pay gap. Tips include sharing the new tool with others and asking their CEO if their organization’s done a pay equity audit; or, if not, to commission one.
ABOUT Trusaic: Trusaic is a leading HR and compliance technology company that focuses on advancing social good in the workplace by solving HR’s most complex challenges across people, data, and compliance. Our mission is to create a better working world – by helping organizations achieve pay equity, foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, assist economically disadvantaged individuals with finding work, and ensure employee access to affordable healthcare.