Comedian/actress Sarah Silverman and creative agency Droga5, co-creators of “The Great Schlep,” have reunited to create a new campaign called The Equal Payback Project, which launched on Wednesday (October 8th), to help close the wage gap between men and women. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), a non-profit organization educating the public about the wage gap and advocating for equal pay, will receive monies raised through the video and crowdfunding initiative. The campaign is powered by crowdfunding platform, Tilt.
The Equal Payback Project is designed to raise awareness about an issue that has persisted for decades and encourage supporters to donate to the cause. The fundraising goal is $29,811,746,430,000 – a ludicrous goal, to be sure, but one highlighting the real numbers; the figure was calculated by multiplying the nearly 69 million working women by the $435,049 a typical woman loses to the wage gap over the course of her career (assuming she works full time, year round for 40 years).
Creative director of Droga5, Karen Short stated,“It’s insane that equal pay is still something we’re fighting for in 2014. More than 50 years have passed since the Equal Pay Act and the typical woman is still making only 78 cents to a man’s dollar. We want to breathe new life into an old issue still relevant to the modern working women. It’s a wake-up call for us to take charge of our financial fates.”
“The wage gap is stubborn, it’s persistent and it’s outrageous,” NWLC Co-President Marcia D. Greenberger explained. “We’re thrilled that Sarah Silverman is bringing her prodigious talents and brand of irreverent humor to bear on a very serious issue for women and their families. We hope she opens hearts and minds – and a few pocketbooks – to provide the resources to close the wage gap once and for all.”
“Equal pay may not be a sexy issue, but it’s an important one,” says Casey Rand, Droga5 Creative Director. “And it is absurd. Young women need to know what’s at stake. And we knew that to get them to engage, we’d need to play up that absurdity.”
In the Great Schlep, which was viewed over 2.2 million times, Silverman, using her trademark ironic humor, exhorts young Jews to schlep down to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama. The campaign hopes to bring a similar level of attention to equal pay.
The Equal Payback Project is collecting funds between now and the end of October. Check out the promo video below (viewer discretion advised: contains mature content).
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