The battle against gender and racial income inequalities is now being fought at the restaurant table. Equipay is an app that helps groups split the bill like Venmo, but determines how much people should pay according to their gender and race. Does that sound like a joke? Well, it is, it was the Grand Prize Winner at the Comedy Hack Day San Francisco SketchFest, but the issues that are behind the comedy sketch are all too real.
In this app, users enter their race and gender for their profiles. They then identify who they are dining with among their friends. The appp provides a rating of the diversity of the group from "Oscars" (all white) to "college brochure." The bill is then split based on income data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Check out this video for a full description.
Starting at the 1:20 mark, the presenter outlines a fictional dinner. The black female presenter, Luna, is in the fictitious group and she is assigned a smaller portion of the bill than her white male friend Graham to mirror the income advantage he has compared to her. When attempting to challenge the break-down (a built in option in the app), Graham chooses excuses that include "that's not an issue anymore," but the app's hilarious responses shut down his claims.
“It’s reparations—one bill at a time,” says Luna Malbroux, the presenter.
In a few minute presentation and ensuing question and answer session, the team behind Equipay, exposes the inequality in the US, where Women on average make $0.78 USD for every dollar that men earn. It gets worse. Black women on average earn only 64 percent of what a white male earns. Worse yet, it is just 56 percent for Hispanic women. High school drop out rates are higher among black and Hispanic Americans, another indicator of future income. And when it comes to wealth, the $113,000 average for white American men is 20 times higher than black and 18 times more than Hispanic Americans.
Inequality is a serious problem in the US. But sometimes it takes a little bit of humor to show just how bad things are. The group says an actual app and commercial are coming soon.
The views expressed here are not necessarily those of each of the partners of Global Citizen.