This Alarm Clock Tackles the Gender Wage Gap by Going off When Work Day is 79% Done

If you're a woman reading this at work and it's after 3:20 p.m., time to wrap up and go — you're probably not getting paid for anything you're doing right now. 

And that's the purpose of the 79% Work Clock campaign: Women earn 79% of the pay compared to men, so they should end work at 79% through the work day. For example, at a 9-5 job, an alarm would start beeping at 3:20 p.m., reminding the office that women are not getting paid for the remainder of the day. 

Read more: On Equal Pay Day, Here's a Reminder That Moms Are Screwed Over Most by the Gender Wage Gap

The campaign's official website — hosted by MTV — allows users to enter their working hours and then calculates at what time you've gone through 79% of your day. The wage gap statistic upon which the clock's concept is based is an average for all women across America — but the website offers a breakdown of the average wage gap in accordance with race too. (For that same 9-5 job, a Latina or Hispanic woman should stop working at 1:24 p.m.)

The total amount of wages lost due to the gender gap equates to around $500 billion dollars a year. Or, put differently, women on average lose out on over $10,000 in annual income compared to their male counterparts. 

The implications aren't simply unjust or inequitable for women: Approximately 40% of households with children rely on the mother as the primary breadwinner. The ripple effect can subsequently lock people in cycles of inequality for generations. Here's what it would look like if women had the Work Clock alarm in their office: