Katie Donovan is the founder of the consultancy Equal Pay Negotiations and helps corporations avoid the impending consequences of not meeting pay equity standards with The Wage Cleanse, a system that will mend existing inequity while building new and better hiring practices to keep you competitive and grow your success. A leading pay-equity expert who has been described as one of the most influential policy entrepreneurs in the last ten years, she started two policy trends to end systemic pay inequity – restricting questions of previous pay and requiring pay information in job ads. Katie’s experience is across sectors and industries, from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups to government sectors and nonprofits. In addition to consulting, she speaks and conducts workshops on equal pay, salary negotiations, and unintended biases in hiring at such venues as Harvard Business School, American Academy of Neurology, NASDAQ, Hallmark, Women in Construction, Society of Women Engineers, and Human Resource Association of Southern Maine. As the premier voice of pay inequities, she is a sought-after commentator by media including BBC, NPR, Hollywood Reporter, Boston Business Journal, The Washington Post, Forbes, and more. consistently featured in major media outlets such as CNN, BBC, Forbes, Time, The Washington Post, and The Hollywood Reporter.
Katie’s fight for pay equity has included roles such as a founding member of the Massachusetts Equal Pay Coalition, Massachusetts co-president for AAUW, legislative committee member of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW), and member of the steering committee for the Massachusetts Chapter of 2020 Women on Boards. These varied experiences with all the stakeholders in hiring give her a unique knowledge and perspective on the gender pay gap.
Katie’s business, Equal Pay Negotiations (EPN), works to achieve equal pay for all groups who are systemically underpaid including women, men of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities, through operational improvements similar to pay history and transparency. Her program—The Wage Cleanse—is a custom-tailored process that addresses everything from the phrasing of job descriptions to hiring from within, which Katie employs to help her clients’ companies reach equal pay and equal opportunity without sacrificing everything they’ve worked so hard to build.
The foundation of EPN’s consulting is the acknowledgment that many best practices in hiring, promotions, and compensation processes assume equality already exists and in doing so they prevent equality from being achieved.
Katie earned her MBA from McCallum School of Business, Bentley University in Waltham, MA and a BA in Economics from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. She grew up in Chelsea, MA and has stayed close to her roots, as has her extended family. Katie loves Boston and its two best sports, Red Sox baseball and politics. When not working, she can be found enjoying Boston and Cape Cod with friends and family, practicing yoga, kayaking, and baking.
Follow Katie on Twitter @KDSalaryCoach and Instagram at EqualPayNegotiations