A Twitter account is calling out the hypocrisy of and exposing UK companies that honored International Women's Day on social media but are paying women significantly lower wages than men.
The bio for the Gender Pay Gap Bot Twitter page–which has 99k followers–reads:
“Employers, if you tweet about International Women's Day, I'll retweet your gender pay gap.”
Tweet by tweet, the GPG Bot disgraced plenty of virtue-signaling businesses—including banks, clothing brands, and NHS trusts—by retweeting their posts and adding data revealing the pay gap disparity between their male and female employees.
The Gender Pay Gap Bot is roasting companies celebrating #IWD on Twitterhttps://www.theverge.com/2022/3/8/22966966/twitter-bot-pay-disparity-company-data-international-womens-day\u00a0\u2026— Matt Navarra (@Matt Navarra) 1646758810
One tweet showed that The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust allegedly pays their female employees an hourly pay that is "17.3% lower than men's."
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 17.3% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/RWT_NHS/status/1501287182891466753\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646770340
Women's clothing line, Missguided, apparently pays women a median hourly pay that is "40% lower than men's" according to the Bot.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 40% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/Missguided/status/1501135683435610114\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646736130
The Bot held British pub chain Young's Pubs accountable for paying women a median hourly pay that is "73.2% lower than men's."
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 73.2% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/YoungsPubs/status/1501149454853885953\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646737500
The list of companies being called out for "gender washing" was endless.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 8% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/bbcstudios/status/1501146379598675970\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646736786
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 23.9% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/Colt_Technology/status/1501147221286338561\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646736967
It wasn’t all bad news.
The London Fire Brigade showed near pay parity with women making just 2.7% more than men.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 2.7% higher than men's.https://twitter.com/LondonFire/status/1501151570339241988\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646738103
While others had a marked difference with women making much less than men.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 22.5% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/Daily_Express/status/1501286632829460482\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646770228
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 23.2% lower than men's.https://twitter.com/accessonline/status/1501286641532485634\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646770227
Some companies deleted their tweets honoring International Women's Day after the Bot exposed them–which is evidenced by these posts with missing parent tweets.
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 81.6% lower than men's. https://twitter.com/Bloxham_Seymour/status/1501273568885321728\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646767103
In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 15.1% lower than men's. https://twitter.com/univofstandrews/status/1501249925346209802\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646761457
The Gender Pay Gay Bot has been up and running for, what, three hours, and it's turned the Twitter timeline into a desert of "This Tweet is unavailable" arse-covering. SCREEN-GRABS, GENDER PAY GAP BOT! GET THE SCREEN-GRABS BEFORE EVERYONE DELETES EVERYTHING!https://twitter.com/PayGapApp/status/1501155663829151744\u00a0\u2026— Caitlin Moran (@Caitlin Moran) 1646738832
Twitter got a kick out of the account's mission and the ensuing pandaemonium.
gender pay gap bot doing the lord\u2019s work this international women\u2019s daypic.twitter.com/z24GiJ0O2r— oscar wilde 'n out (@oscar wilde 'n out) 1646770042
The @PayGapApp is an absolute genius idea. I\u2019m looking at the feed before the companies it is quote tweeting delete their original tweet.— Scott Bryan (@Scott Bryan) 1646738836
Social media editors right now watching the @PayGapApp winning Twitter #InternationalWomensDaypic.twitter.com/B3rewCY8ak— Simon Doherty (@Simon Doherty) 1646741393
Today I am mostly obsessed with the @PayGapApp. A bot that RTs any company tweeting about #IWD2022 highlighting their gender pay gap. It is hilarious and depressing in equal measures.— Holly Bourne (@Holly Bourne) 1646730479
This bot is my new favorite thing \n\nFor every company tweeting about international women\u2019s day, @PayGapApp is posting the gender pay gap\n\nSo keep telling us it\u2019s easier for women. And save your PR tweets. I\u2019ll take a fair wage insteadpic.twitter.com/CUqdZdFPMg— bluejay \ud83e\udd8b (@bluejay \ud83e\udd8b) 1646761827
Gender Pay Gap Bot @PayGapApp calling out performative nonsense is my new favourite thing— Dr Zo\u00eb Ayres (@Dr Zo\u00eb Ayres) 1646737851
Gender pay gap bot has made my international women's day infinitely better.https://twitter.com/PayGapApp/status/1501247888319516675\u00a0\u2026— lindy\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8 (@lindy\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf8) 1646765439
The account was not solely dedicated to shaming companies for their hypocrisy.
It also highlighted the organizations that paid male and female workers equally.
In this organisation, men's and women's median hourly pay is equal.https://twitter.com/STSFTrust/status/1501147484399222786\u00a0\u2026— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@Gender Pay Gap Bot) 1646737030
Indy100 suggested readers look up the companies they work for and see if they are on the UK's government’s gender pay gap portal.
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