Pipeline Equity: AI-Powered Solutions for Closing the Gender Pay Gap

On Christmas Day 1956, in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution, President Dwight Eisenhower’s personal plane transported 21 Hungarian refugees to their new home in the United States. Among those on board were Katica Roy’s father and her three older sisters. This act of generosity has profoundly influenced Roy’s work today.

“There was a sense of being incredibly fortunate to be born in the United States and also a sense of giving back,” she says. Roy is the founder and CEO of Pipeline Equity, a Denver-based startup launched in 2017 to address the persistent gender inequities in the workplace.

The Gender Pay Gap: A Persistent Issue

A 2019 analysis by the Pew Research Center revealed that women earned 85% of what men earned, implying that women needed to work an additional 39 days to match men’s earnings from the previous year. Furthermore, a 2018 report from the World Economic Forum estimated that it would take 202 years to achieve gender parity in the workplace at the current pace.

Pipeline Equity’s Mission and Approach

Pipeline Equity aims to close the gender wage gap using artificial intelligence-powered software. This software encourages businesses to make less biased decisions during recruitment, hiring, promotion, evaluation, and compensation processes. It provides recommendations to managers during performance reviews, candidate suggestions, promotions, and other employee-related decisions.

According to Roy, achieving gender equity is not only a matter of fairness but also makes good business sense. It fosters employee loyalty, and Pipeline’s research has shown that companies moving closer to gender equity have seen revenue increases.

How Pipeline Equity Works

Pipeline Equity’s software reads through performance reviews to identify biased phrases and calibrate ratings, ensuring equitable application for similar performances. Roy explains:

“We found that women are underrated 4% of the time. So, for similar performance, women will receive a lower performance rating. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you extrapolate it, you see what’s happening in the talent pipeline today: women are 51% of entry-level employees but only 22% of the C-suite. We have a leaky pipeline.”

The software also examines cultural fit, as women are often held to higher standards than men regarding company culture.

Systemic Change Over Individual Effort

Roy emphasizes that while teaching women negotiation skills is essential, the system itself is broken and undervalues women. Pipeline Equity focuses on changing the system to value women equitably. By altering how decisions are made, the cumulative effect of these changes can transform how the system values people.

The Inspiration Behind Pipeline Equity

Roy’s personal experiences with pay inequity inspired her to create Pipeline Equity. After successfully negotiating equitable pay twice, she realized the need for a system that proactively addresses the gender pay gap. This “aha moment” came during a radio show discussion on negotiation and pay.

Raising Capital for Pipeline Equity

Roy launched Pipeline Equity in April 2017, a year marked by significant events such as Susan Fowler’s account of gender discrimination at Uber and the #MeToo movement. Despite the growing awareness of these issues, Roy notes that female founders still face challenges in raising capital. They are often asked prevention questions about mitigating risks, whereas male founders are asked promotion questions about potential growth.

“In my anecdotal experience, it seems a little bit better now,” Roy says. “But it’s a pretty far cry from where we need to be in terms of funding female founders.”

For more information on gender equity and related topics, you can visit the Pew Research Center.

By Ellen Lee, a freelance journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area.