You Can Always Get What You Want: Ladies Get Paid Founder on the Power of Changing The Rules

Claire Wasserman, founder of Ladies Get Paid.

Like so many great ideas, this one started in the ladies room.

Claire Wasserman, the founder of Ladies Get Paid, a global community that champions the professional and financial advancement of women, had retreated to the restroom at a festival party in Cannes, France. She was there for the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, as she was working as a producer to promote a nominated short film, “Snovi.”

“I had a sexist experience and thought this was ridiculous,” says Wasserman, who incorporated Ladies Get Paid, in 2015. “A man at the festival party asked me, ‘Whose wife are you?’”

Angry, upset, tired and looking for a brief respite, Wasserman retreated to the ladies room.

“The whole week was exhausting as I was objectified and not taken seriously. The restroom is where all the women were hiding and trading business cards. Subconsciously the idea seeped in,” says Wasserman, who is the author of Ladies Get Paid, and host of John Hancock’s podcast, Friends Who Talk About Money.

Read more in Take The Lead on fair pay for BIPOC

Now with more than 100,000 women from all 50 states and more than 120 countries, exchanging more than 2 million messages on the Slack group since 2016, Ladies Get Paid is a free membership initiative that offers access to education, resources and community with content, programming, books and live networking support.

“Now with more than 100,000 #women from all 50 states and more than 120 countries, @Ladiesgetpaid is a free membership initiative that offers access to education, resources and community with content, programming, books and live #networking support. ”

And while she has instructed thousands of women how to negotiate millions of dollars in raises, start businesses, and advocate for themselves in the workplace, this blossoming in her career has roots in her teen years.

“@Clairewasserman has instructed thousands of women how to negotiate millions of dollars in raises, start businesses, and advocate for themselves in the workplace. #wagegap #femaleentrepreneur”

Her family moved to Washington, D.C., from New York when she was 10 and in high school she was a Senate page intern for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) She also interned at the New Republic, and worked throughout high school at other jobs including as a waitress and at Starbucks.

Register here to join Claire Wasserman in a Fireside Chat with Gloria Feldt April 5, 5-6 pm ET

Studying sociology and minoring in French at Boston University, Wasserman was friends with classmate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now a New York congressman, who supports Ladies Get Paid. After graduating in 2009, Wasserman worked as a fundraiser for a nonprofit based there, before moving into experiential marketing.

In 2010, she was director of marketing at The Art Directors Club, and then went to work for Working Not Working, as one of the original employees.

“In between I had a failed startup,” Wasserman says, a video company that cut videos into a database based on keywords. “I realized I didn’t want to learn and not have money,” she says.

While she had been gainfully employed since her teen years from part-time jobs to full-time jobs post-college, “For some time I had been bothered, disturbed and angered about the wage gap. So I wondered was there anything I could do?”

Read more in Take The Lead on checking fair wages

When a friend told her she had discovered a peer was charging double what she was charging for similar projects, Wasserman, named one of Entrepreneur Magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women, said she started thinking about getting women together to share their salaries. With the memory of the Cannes Film Festival ladies room, Wasserman says, “We wanted to do an event where we could have a conversation about money.”

Six months before the 2016 election, Wasserman held the first ladies Get Paid town hall where 100 women showed up. “But it wasn’t a systemic solution,” she says. So she recruited career coaches and built educational platforms, oh, and quit her day job. That year Wasserman hosted town halls on salary and more in 19 cities.

Wasserman, who says she believed was always paid fairly in her jobs, did not know salary negotiation was an option.

“I am angered about the energy I expended in my career to twist myself into a pretzel to make men feel good,” says Wasserman, “and to negotiate gender equity in pay.”

““I am angered about the energy I expended in my career to twist myself into a pretzel to make men feel good,” says @Clairewasserman, “and to negotiate #genderequity in pay.” #women #careersuccess”

She is not alone, recently Venus Williams, five time Wimbledon tennis champion wrote in British Vogue, "I firmly believe that sport mirrors life and life mirrors sport. The lack of equality and equal opportunities in tennis is a symptom of the obstacles women face around the world."

Read more in Take The Lead on gender pay gap

Recent reports about companies encouraging pay secrecy have led to law suits.

“Ten women who are suing the Walt Disney Company for what they have called ‘rampant gender pay discrimination’ have added a claim involving pay secrecy, a topic that is becoming a larger part of the national conversation about workplace equality,” reports the New York Times.

The court fight over equal pay at Disney started in April 2019 when two employees, LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore, filed a lawsuit claiming that Disney discriminates against female workers by paying them less than their male counterparts. Since then, eight more current and former female Disney employees have joined the case, which their lawyer, Lori E. Andrus, is striving to get certified as a class action. Disney has aggressively pushed back on the entire matter, saying it maintains ‘robust pay-equity practices and policies’ and calling the accusations ‘ill informed and unfounded,’” the New York Times reports.

Such claims and practices of consistently being paid less than men, income inequities and financial shortfalls are not just in the present, but exacerbated later in life for women.

“Such claims and practices of consistently being paid less than men, #income #inequities and financial shortfalls are not just in the present, but exacerbated later in life for women. #paygap”

“Most women earn less than men throughout their careers, which translates to less financial security in retirement as well. Median household retirement incomes for women are roughly 80% of what they are for men, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security,” reports Public News Service.

While the recent Equal Pay Day demonstrates that all women are paid only 82 cents on the dollar, and BIPOC communities of Black, Latina and Native American women are paid much less, shifts toward salary transparency and fairness are common.

“While the recent #EqualPayDay demonstrates that all women are paid only 82 cents on the dollar, and #BIPOC communities of Black, Latina and Native American women are paid much less, shifts toward #salary #transparency and fairness are common. ”

Read more in Take The Lead on salary transparency

Forbes reports, “Research shows that workplaces that are more transparent about employees’ pay have narrower pay gaps. Yet, Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University, St Louis and author of You're Paid What You're Worth and Other Myths of the Modern Economy has found that in many workplaces, employees are discouraged from discussing pay. As a result, many employees remain in the dark about pay disparities in their workplace.”

“Progress is not linear,” Wasserman says. “But this community has made massive change, gotten raises they never thought they could get. A whole new vocabulary opened up, with a knowledge and confidence shift, even if it does not result in a raise.”

““Progress is not linear,” @Clairewasserman says. “But this community has made massive change, gotten raises they never thought they could get. A whole new vocabulary opened up, with a knowledge and confidence shift, even if it does not result in a raise.” #wagegap #workplace”

With the ongoing mission to “help women achieve power and pay they deserve,” Wasserman says, “we are helping women get recognized and rewarded.”

That is a bigger mission than career development, she acknowledges. Now based in Los Angeles, Wasserman says, the pandemic curtailed large public events, but Ladies Get Paid is in “re-emergence. It’s just so tiring, even though we are so proud of ourselves.”

What she has learned from her efforts is that to be a successful entrepreneur creating a mission like Ladies Get paid, “You have to make sure there is a real need, not a nice to have. Is it a real need and are people willing to pay for it?”

“What @Clairewasserman learned from her efforts is that to be a successful #entrepreneur creating a mission like @Ladiesgetpaid, “You have to make sure there is a real need, not a nice to have. Is it a real need and are people willing to pay for it?” #womenleaders”

And you have to brace yourself for bumps in the road. Two years in, a men’s rights group sued Ladies Get Paid for sex discrimination, saying they should not just help women. Wasserman settled, after raising $115,000 for legal fees and working with the state of California to change the law used to create the suit.

But from that suit and ensuing media coverage, Wasserman says, “We created a groundswell of support, got crowd funding, I got my book deal and if they sue again, the suit will be thrown out.”

It also gave her a glimpse into lobbying work, which she intends to do more of in the future. “That is where true change happens at the systemic level.” She pauses, “And then I can go back to my Senate page roots.”