This Equal Pay Day, MTV's Emmy Award-winning "Look Different" anti-bias campaign will unleash a nationwide protest of the gender pay gap with the creation of the "MTV Look Different 79% Work Clock" - a physical clock that chimes at 3:20 p.m. to signify that women, on average, are paid only 79 percent of what men are paid annually.* MTV will manufacture and distribute hundreds of "79% Work Clocks" to influential business leaders, politicians, journalists, actors and artists, including those attending the "2016 MTV Movie Awards," and feature the clock across its on-air, digital and social media platforms.
"The need for more awareness and resources around the broader issues facing women in the workplace ranging from equal pay and paid family leave, to women entering the STEM fields and gender discrimination is paramount today," said Ronnie Cho, Head of Public Affairs for MTV. "Our hope is that Equal Pay Day extends beyond just one calendar day per year and reminds us all, daily, of the responsibility we hold in combating structural inequality and pushing progress forward."
"Equal Pay Day is a sobering reminder of how much the wage gap is costing America's women in critical income that could go toward food, rent, student loan payments and more," said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, a leading women's organization that analyzes the wage gap each year as part of its work to advance fair workplace policies and a "Look Different" partner and advisor on the "79% Work Clock." "It is unacceptable that, on average, women who hold full-time, year-round jobs in this country have to work three extra months to catch up with what men were paid in the previous year. And for women of color the gap is even worse. We must do much more as a nation to end discrimination, raise wages and enact family friendly workplace policies so that millions of women and their families are no longer denied the fair pay they need and deserve."
Beginning this week,
MTV will send physical "MTV Look Different 79% Work Clocks" to hundreds of women leaders nationwide. Each clock will be pre-set with an alarm that rings every day at 3:20 p.m., or 79 percent through a 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. workday. On Equal Pay Day, Tuesday April 12 - the day that marks how far into 2016 women have to work in order to make the same amount of money men made in 2015 - #79Percent will serve as the social rallying cry throughout the day, leading up to exactly 3:20 p.m. ET when
MTV will road-block all of its television, digital and social screens. The takeover will feature a "MTV Look Different 79% Work Clock" PSA and #79Percent assets across its MTV,
MTV2 and
MTV Live networks, digital and social accounts to spur action on individual's social media to raise awareness. Additionally, sister channels Vh1, TVLand, BET and
Logo will air the "MTV Look Different 79% Work Clock" PSA on Tuesday.
In addition, MTV's "Look Different" will unveil www.79percentclock.com, an online
HUB featuring the 79-Percent Calculator to help individuals find the correct time setting for their personal work clocks based on their hours and race - and to learn more about the gender wage gap in America.
MTV will invite audiences to utilize the calculator to find and share their #79Percent and stand in solidarity for gender equality. In addition to the hundreds of clocks distributed to influencers, a number will be made available to MTV's audience via a social media sweepstakes beginning on Equal Pay Day.
New resources encouraging young people to learn more about the gender wage gap and take action will also be added to "Look Different's" site, with a custom
HUB at clock.LookDifferent.org.
The "79% Work Clock" and accompanying website was created in collaboration with innovative agency Party Creative Labs.
The "MTV Look Different 79% Work Clock" was created in support of "Look Different's" expansion in August 2015 to include new initiatives focused on gender bias. Since then the campaign has launched a second custom Implicit Association Test, a simple but powerful quiz designed to unearth unconscious gender bias; a second installment of its Gender Bias Cleanse, a seven day de-biasing regimen to help people unlearn gender biases that have built up over years; the provocative "Invisible Ads" campaign that hijacked the most commonly seen form of advertising to raise awareness on the most commonly ignored crime - sexual assault; and "Gender Bent," a series of three animated videos that take on the stereotype of girls wearing pink and boys wearing blue, the commonly held misconception that boys are better math than girls and a look at the history of men crying.
Over the past two years, MTV's "Look Different" has invited audiences to look differently at the unintended consequences of hidden racial, gender and LGBT biases. In fact, a recent
MTV national gender bias study of 1,000 respondents ages 14 to 24 found that less than 1 in 4 know where to turn when dealing with gender bias, including the pay gap.
"Look Different" has developed a wide range of original content, including the provocative and Emmy-nominated "White People," a groundbreaking documentary that examined race in modern day America from the viewpoint of white Millennials, and the Emmy Award-winning "Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word," which took viewers inside the lives of seven transgender youth, exploring the intersection of transgender identities and race.
Additionally the campaign launched "White Squad," a satirical infomercial highlighting systemic racial inequality, and #TheTalk, where for the first time in the network's history,
MTV aired all programming in black and white for 12 hours on Martin
LUTHER King, Jr. Day 2015 in an effort to encourage audiences to have "color brave" conversations on race.
To date, the campaign has connected deeply with young people to help drive a meaningful conversation and inspire audiences to take a stand. From undoing their own hidden biases to learning how to challenge bias when they see it, nearly 2 million actions have been taken by young people.
MTV has convened a world-class coalition of expert partners to help steer the "Look Different" campaign, including the National Partnership for Women & Families, Anti-Defamation League, Asian American Justice Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Council on Contemporary Families, Define American, GLAAD, GLSEN, Girls Who Code, Hollaback!, Kirwan Institute, LOVE, Love is Respect, Man Up, NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, Project Implicit, RAINN, The Ally Coalition, Southern Poverty Law Center and The Trevor Project.
Source: *Women who work full time, year round are paid an average of 79 cents for every dollar paid to men - and on average, women of color are paid even less. For more, see Women's Median Annual Earnings as a Percentage of Men's Median Annual Earnings for Full-time, Year-round Workers, 1974 - 2014 (via National Partnership for Women & Families www.nationalpartnership.org/gap).
About MTV:
MTV is a global media brand inspired by the creative spirit of music and the freedom and passion of youth.
MTV is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA).
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