Twitter Bot calls out hypocritical brands posting about IWD

It was all about “celebrating” but a brutal response to company tweets has revealed the “stinking” attitude that needs to be solved.

Two women have created an automated bot that has called out hypocritical companies for celebrating International Women’s Day, despite having a “stinking pay gap” between men and women.

The account, Gender Pay Gap Bot, revealed the massive difference some organisations have between their male and female employees’ hourly pay.

It targeted British companies, where employers with more than 250 staff are forced to report on pay disparities between men and women, with the most recent data showing an overall 7.9 per cent gap across the country.

While organisations tweeted images of smiling workers and generic inspiring statements, the brutal bot was highlighting the inequalities in their workforce.

Fashion fitness empire Sweaty Betty’s tweeted about “celebrating the journey to womanhood” yet the bot revealed the organisations women’s mean hourly pay is 63.9 per cent lower than men’s.

In this organisation, women's mean hourly pay is 59% lower than men's. @BouxAvenue#IWD2021https://t.co/rlXdodeiGT

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 10, 2021

UK lingerie chain Boux Avenue’s tweet was met with the reply that women’s pay was 31.4 per cent lower at the company.

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs’ tweet about “celebrating the women across our global firm who lead with brilliance, passion and superpowers every day” was met with the stark response that women were paid 36.8 per cent less compared to men.

Airline Virgin Atlantic announced it was naming two of its new planes “in honour of two fearless females”, although the organisation was paying women 58.9 per cent less, according to the bot.

The women behind the bot are UK-based Francesca Lawson, a copywriter and social media manager and her partner, Ali Fensome, a software consultant.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 36.8% lower than men's. https://t.co/DK2pSg8jcR

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022

The 27-year-old said she created the Twitter account to make sure the gender pay gap could have more “influence” and be easily found.

“The bot exists in order to empower employees and members of the public to hold these companies to account for their role in perpetuating inequalities,” she told The New York Times.

“It’s no good saying how much you empower women if you have a stinking pay gap.”

The account’s tweets have now been seen a whopping 80 million times.

However, some organisations went to extreme lengths to avoid the Twitter account, either deleting their original tweet and reposting without the IWD hashtag, blocking the bot and even making tweets private.

pic.twitter.com/VMtAc7rUZ6

— Sam McQueen (@samuel_mcqueen) March 8, 2022

Yet, some organisations did respond with their plans to address the gender pay gap.

English Heritage, a charity that manages historical sites such as Stonehenge, addressed the data that women employees were paid 3.9 per cent less than men, noting that the figures were from April 2020.

“Since then, we’ve been working hard to reduce our pay gap & it is closing,” it tweeted.

“But regardless of its size, a gap is still a gap and the charity is committed to eliminating it.”

Australia requires employers to report on their gender pay gap to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, however individual company data is not made public.

Instead the Agency only publishes aggregated data for the gender pay gap in industries and for Australia overall.

Its most recent report revealed females earn a whopping $25,800 less on average than males and women earn on average 14.2 per cent less than men.

In this organisation, women's median hourly pay is 3.9% lower than men's. https://t.co/E8K9xNqi9T

— Gender Pay Gap Bot (@PayGapApp) March 8, 2022

Typically, women earned $7.72 for every $10 men made and every one of the 19 industries in Australia still has a pay gap in favour of men – even those where women comprise most employees such as health care and social assistance.

Meanwhile, Lawson said the bot could be used again around October, where women start to work for free as the pay gap kicks in, but she also welcomed copycat accounts for other countries.

“The more people who are doing this work then the fewer places there are for companies to hide,” she added.

Last year, Australia finished equal last alongside the UK in a ranking of the gender pay gap across six countries, according to a major international report.