Citi: The Moment by Publicis

If the gender pay gap continues at the current pace, women will have to wait until 2227, according to the World Economic Forum, to earn the same as men – that’s 208 years. So on this International Day of the Girl (11 October), financial company Citi is pledging to close the gender pay gap in its ranks with a new campaign.

Earlier this year, Citi claims it became the first US bank to publish unadjusted or “raw” global pay gap figures, which measure the difference in median compensation when factors such as job function, level and geography are not accounted for, and the numbers revealed that female employees earned 29% less than their male counterparts while minorities earned 7% less than non-minority employees. In addition, while women make up more than half of Citi’s workforce, only 37% of them are in senior positions.

With this information in hand, Citi is looking to spur a broader conversation around pay equity, and the representation gap that leads to it, creating a new campaign called ‘The Moment’ timed to coincide with International Day of the Girl, which includes a video that captures the unedited reactions of young children at the precise moment they hear that women are paid less than men. Their reactions are revealing, met first with silence and then with upset comments about the unfair nature of the gap.

The puzzled and troubled faces of those girls were captured not only in video, but also for a billboard in Manhattan (located at 1535 Broadway between 45th & 46th streets at the Marriot Marquis), which will encourage consumers to visit citi.com/itsabouttime to view the full video.