Here's How To Earn Back Money You Lost Thanks To The Wage Gap

17% is no small quantity. In a pizza pie, it’s a slice and a half. In a week, it's more than a day. In a bottle of wine, it's a tall glass. And in parts of the workforce, it’s the wage gap between men and women’s salaries for equivalent positions. That percentage varies across location and occupation, but no matter the framing, women are still getting the short end of the stick. It’s been 56 years since the Equal Pay Act was passed — and it still often feels like we're closer to building flying cars than we are to ironing out income inequality.

While we'll need legislation, better education, and more major companies committed to closing the gap in order to actually make it happen, all efforts, no matter the size, make a difference. So this year, just in time for International Women’s Day, MoneyLion is taking a stand. For the month of March, any member who deposits a paycheck through the finance group's checking account system will receive a bonus adding up to 17% of the deposited check as part of the company's Pave The Wage campaign (up to $599 more for you!). There’s no catch — after all, that’s money you earned. And you deserve it.

Throughout the course of the month, MoneyLion has $3 million dollars to spend — so it's expecting to bridge that wage gap on up to 35,000 paychecks. All you have to do is...well, your job.

Once that’s done, you’ll deposit your paycheck just like you would at a bank, except with MoneyLion, which is like a bank but with a few major differences. For instance: MoneyLion charges nothing at all for services like checking, fraud protection, credit score monitoring, and managed investing — the sorts of amenities banks typically only offer at no cost to those with million-dollar accounts.

Fortunately, that’s not what MoneyLion is about — it wants to give everyone the tools for financial success. It's about recognizing (and rewarding) determination. This month, that means helping you earn back some of the money you’ve been owed all along.

Ladies, go get your 17%.

Oh, and if you're wondering how 17% adds up in the real world, check out the above video from MoneyLion, exploring what 17% might look like if, say, men in a bar were offered 17% less beer than their female counterparts. (Spoiler: It's not pretty.)