SACRAMENTO – California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on Feb 8 announced GoFundMe has signed the California Equal Pay Pledge – bringing the total number of signatories to 100. Classy, an affiliate of GoFundMe that serves nonprofits with scalable technology for online fundraising, has also signed the Pledge. The companies have committed to conducting annual company-wide gender pay analyses, reviewing their hiring and promotion processes and procedures to reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers, and promoting best practices to help close the pay gap and ensure fundamental equity for all workers.

In 2019, as part of her California for ALL Women initiative, the First Partner, in partnership with the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG) launched the Equal Pay Pledge to build upon the state’s nation-leading equal pay laws by closing the existing gender wage gap. The California Partners Project, founded by the First Partner in 2020, also provides support for the Equal Pay Pledge.

“Closing the gender wage gap will require a combination of smart public and private policies as well as cultural change,” said First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. “I’m grateful to GoFundMe and Classy for signing the pledge and leading the way. I also encourage Californians to look at the companies they purchase from and ensure they have signed the pledge. As long as the pernicious wage gap exists, women- particularly mothers and women of color- will continue to receive the very clear message in this country that our work is less valuable and our human potential matters less than that of a man.”

California has some of the strongest equal pay laws in the country, but women in the state still earn 88 cents for every dollar a man earns, and mothers earn 77 cents for every $1 earned by a father. These numbers plummet to 62 cents for Black women, 55 cents for Latina women, and 50 cents for Native American women. The gender wage gap creates staggering financial losses with California women losing a combined total of $78.6 billion each year.

To date, 100 companies have signed the Equal Pay Pledge, including the State of California, LinkedIn, and Apple. Since the launch of the Pledge, First Partner Siebel Newsom has helped connect thousands of Californians to educational equal pay resources, hosted roundtables and conversations to hear firsthand about the pay gap’s impact on working women and their families, and secured major corporate commitments to the Equal Pay Pledge – reaching hundreds of thousands of employees.