Michelle Williams is opening up the massive pay disparity she experienced while working on All the Money in the World with Mark Wahlberg.
The 38-year-old four-time Oscar nominee joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus to mark Equal Pay Day by speaking on Capitol Hill on Tuesday (April 2) to advocate for equal pay for women.
During her speech, Michelle said she was “paralyzed in feelings of futility” after learning that Mark had made $1.5 million compared to her paycheck of less than $1,000 for reshoots on the film.
“In late 2017, the news broke that I’d been paid less than $1,000 compared to the $1.5 million that my male counterpart had received for the exact same amount of work,” Michelle shared. “And guess what, no one cared. This came as no surprise to me, it simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality is not an inalienable right and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility at home.”
After the news broke of the pay gap, Mark donated his $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund.
“It’s the kind of story I would normally resist: the morality tale with a happy ending, or rather a happy beginning because that’s really why I’m here,” Michelle said. “There won’t be satisfaction for me until I can exhaust my efforts ensuring that all women experience the elevation of their self-worth and its connection to the elevation of their market worth.”
