Thinking through the urgency and importance of an item for you versus what it is for someone else will help you think about whether that email needs to be sent in the middle of the night or if it can wait.

There has been a lot of fully justified anger at a system that viciously exploits and devalues the most marginalized, and the past several years have seen many workers start to reevaluate their relationship with work, and to rethink the value of their labor—and their lives.

It’s more complicated than an “us” vs. “them” scenario when you’re organizing a small repro organization, but when the lines are drawn, you want the new hire falling on the right side of the battlefield. Whoever makes them feel most supported, welcome, and confident will likely win their alliance.

"Our Planned Parenthood workers are dedicated to the mission of ensuring reproductive healthcare is accessible and affordable for its patients. It makes sense to me that those same staff should have a living wage and employee benefits to be able to make the best family planning decisions for themselves too."

"It’s easier to work toward a union if you build community and know one another!"

A report on pay equity in the reproductive justice, rights, and health movement organizations.

“As employers, we have a tremendous responsibility to create conditions in which our staff can be well. Gender-based violence is a systemic problem created and perpetuated by our society which means that all of our institutions have a part to play in interrupting and taking accountability for it. Just like our workplaces need to do more to address racism, they need to do more to create survivor-supportive workplaces.”

“The COVID MOU we bargained for included worker safety procedures, additional stipends to cover the continuing costs of working from home, and assurances that folks wouldn’t be required to come to the office during the pandemic.”

Through our work, we’ve come to understand the negative impacts of unpaid internships and be inspired by those who advocate changing institutions that allow them (and yes, sometimes we are our own inspirations). Advocating for fair pay in the workplace when you’re coming in at a disadvantage can be extremely daunting, and that’s why it’s so important for all sectors of the workforce to understand the importance of paid internships.

As women of color research fellows for Pay Our Interns, we advocate for other women of color interns to be fairly and equitably compensated in Congressional internships. So we’re here to push other organizations to do the same. Enough is enough! It’s time to put an end to harmful practices that demand unpaid labor from BIWOC*.

Organizing across miles carries a lot of barriers, but it also holds some unique opportunities. Many locations means many opportunities to compare workplace locations, find discrepancies between job descriptions or wages, and identify who really makes the decisions about things like working conditions.

“We want queer folks to be able to build families without the higher price tag of paying out of pocket for assisted reproductive technology that straight people get after their infertility diagnosis. Surrogacy, IUI, IVF is all so expensive. Queer people should not have to bear the financial burden just because they have a dream of parenthood.”