Bar cuts women’s bill to highlight pay gap

A New York bar has taken extreme measures to highlight the gender pay gap by charging women only 77% of their total bill.

As reported by The Guardian, The Way Station in Brooklyn this week charged women just 77% of their total bill for one night only, highlighting the gender pay gap and the 77 cents on average a woman makes for every dollar a man earns.

“I have three sisters, the majority of my staff and friends are women,” said Andy Heidel, owner of The Way Station. “I thought this would be a great way to even the playing field even if it was for one night only.”

The point of the event was to draw attention to gender inequality in terms of pay in the US and to get people talking, said Heidel.

While most patrons welcomed the event, some men’s rights activists claimed that the deal discriminated against men and threatened to boycott the bar. Heidel’s response to these individuals was “good riddance”.

“For those men complaining about it, those are not the type of people I want as customers so this promotion is helping to weed out those who do not want to treat women with respect”, he said.

Other called into question the legality of such an offer. Patricia McCoy, a law professor at Boston College, said the bar’s promotion was price discrimination based on gender, but was unclear as to whether it was illegal.

“Some states prohibit price discrimination based on gender, while others do not”, she said. “Whatever else, certainly what the bar is doing is provocative and guaranteed to draw attention.”

The US census bureau found that in 2013 women were making $10,800 less a year than men, which equated to 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. In 2012, women earned 77 cents to every dollar men did. Some critics claim this gap is due to women’s choice of careers, an argument that Heidel dismissed. 

“The stats I have researched are based on same jobs held by women and men. I’m sure if you took national average, all the male CEOs would skew the numbers even more.”