Ladies, Sarah Silverman Wants You To Ask For A Raise

Ladies, Sarah Silverman Wants You To Ask For A Raise

Sarah Silverman is standing up against wage inequality by asking for more.

Silverman teamed up with Levo in a new video for Levo's #Ask4More campaign to talk about the gender pay gap and how it's affected her throughout her career.

The 44-year-old comedian began with an anecdote about a time she and a male comedian performed the same show, but she was paid less. "He just got $60, and I just got $10. We did the exact same time back-to-back on the same show," she said. "It's pretty shitty."

Silverman noted that there are many different variables that influence pay, including experience and output -- but if the work is equal, the pay should be too. “If you work a job and a man is working the same job, you should be getting paid the same," she said. "I don't think anyone's asking for more than what's fair."

Women tend to wait for perfection before asking for more. Silverman shared a lesson from years of playing basketball with all guys as an example of how women can't be afraid of failure. "You can’t take a shot and miss and feel like it means you’ve missed a hundred shots and that you’re burdening your team," Silverman said. “The guys shoot and miss all the time, most of the time. And they get better."

The pay gap is an issue that impact women across socioeconomic and racial groups -- no matter what field they work in. The wage gap only grows larger as women age, with women earning 90 percent of what men make until 35, after which they are paid 75–80 percent of what men are paid. And many women of color are hit even harder by the wage gap, with Latina women earning just 54 percent of every dollar a white man males, and black women earning 64 percent.

And things aren't changing nearly fast enough. A recent report showed that in a few parts of the U.S. women won't see equal pay until 2100.

“I think as women, as a whole, if we can understand what we deserve… we [can understand that] we deserve quality lives," Silverman says. “Go ahead, ask for more.”

On it. Thanks, Sarah.

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