Equality and equity
The meaning and
difference
Diversity, Inclusion, Equality, and Purpose (DIEP) for great sustainable workplace health & wellness is amazing. Want to get started with DIEP? Start up with the necessary knowledge. Let’s focus for now on equality and equity.
Equality
Equality is all about equal opportunities to get the best out of life and talents. We are talking about believing how no one should have fewer opportunities in life. For whatsoever reason.
It is all about recognizing how certain groups of people with protected characteristics are being treated in comparison to others.
Some examples are found in people with another ethnicity, disability, gender, and sexual orientation. They are experiencing discrimination. Equality has a direct link to human rights.
Example: education
Research is showing how income of parents is a strong predictor of the “success”. The higher the income, the better the education opportunities are for children. These parents are able to pay for private teachers etc. The intention for a great education for every child is linked to equality, the result and impact does not need to be equal.
Equity
Equality is often confused with equity. Both are heavily linked to each other but are very different in impact. With equity, we are talking about bringing in evidence.
Investments are made in improving the position of people with an unequal start. Compensation for a disadvantageous starting position is created for valuable impact.
The investment does not always have to be in a financial way. Although in practice we are often experiencing a financial investment prior to it.
Let’s take a look at the given example case. What is possible in the example?
It could be extra homework guidance and extra lessons. The financial investment means hiring teachers. The teachers receive financial compensation. In both cases, evidence is needed to determine if you really are equality and equity-driven.
For most companies (and their employees) it means most of the time examing and adjusting salaries/pay/income to certain aspects. Nowadays gender is a big aspect. It can be combined with a lot of other aspects such as cultural/ethnicity/sexuality etc. If you have the data, you can do the research and go for real impact.
Get started today!
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