June 2021 | Leaders for Equity and Equal Pay (LEEP) Toolkit Launch
Change The Story VT, the partnership initiative of Vermont Works for Women, Vermont Commission on Women, and the Vermont Women's Fund, launched a new Leaders for Equity and Equal Pay (LEEP) Toolkit, a free DIY resource empowering Vermont’s small to mid-size employers with the tools they need to conduct gender and racial pay equity reviews.
Those who attended the lunch hour event were introduced to the innovative new Equity Management Tool and its companion Playbook, learned more about pay equity from a national expert, and were inspired by the stories of Vermont employers who have implemented workplace pay equity practices.
Created by Sadowski Consulting Services in partnership with Change The Story VT, the Toolkit is a free resource to empower small to mid-size employers (any organization with under 400 employees) with what they need to conduct in-house, DIY gender and racial pay equity reviews. The Toolkit contains:
• an Excel-based Equity Management Tool
• a companion Pay Equity Playbook
• an interactive Compensation Philosophy Worksheet
• a Pay Equity Plan Template
• a Performance Rubric
LEEP toolkit from our Change The Story Vt partner, Vermont Women's Fund
The launch event featured a roundtable discussion, moderated by Kerin Durfee, VCW Commissioner and Director of Burlington’s Human Resources Department, featured Vermont employers, compensation experts and LEEP Toolkit developers:
• Mara Neufeld Rivera, SHRM-SCP, Vice President/Head of People & Culture at Chroma Technology Corporation
• Lisa Yaeger, Chief Equity, People & Culture Officer at Vermont Foodbank
• Duane Peterson, Co-President and Founder of SunCommon
• Krysta Sadowski, Equity & Talent Strategy Consultant
• Frank Sadowski, Sadowski Consulting Services
Viewers took away a deeper knowledge of gender and racial pay equity from special guest Evelyn Murphy, Ph.D. economist, founder and president of the nationwide, grassroots activist organization The WAGE Project, Inc., and author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It. Dr. Murphy was the first woman to hold constitutional office in Massachusetts when she was elected Lt. Governor in the mid-80s, having served previously as the state’s Secretary of Environmental Affairs, and as Secretary of Economic Affairs. She currently serves as co-chair of the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, a public-private partnership dedicated to eliminating the gender/racial wage gap in the greater Boston area.