A new app called Equipay that was recently presented at a Comedy Hack Day in San Francisco promises to help you fairly split the bill when you’re out with friends— using gender and racial income inequality. How exactly? Using “affirmative fractions” (and real Bureau of Labor Statistics data). Even though the app is meant as a joke, team member Luna Malbroux explained that the app is meant as a social commentary, which will hopefully help start a conversation between friends.
Equipay offers options to input your race and a sliding scale between male and female genders. “We acknowledge that gender is a spectrum,” said Lambroux as she presented the app. When splitting the bill, a diversity tracker keeps tabs on your friends, who may fit into the ‘Oscar’ category, ‘San Francisco startup’ or even ‘college brochure.’ If the payer doesn’t like the total, they can “protest,” at which point the app will ask for an excuse. Options include, “I pulled myself up from by bootstraps,” “I’m aware of my privilege” and “this isn’t an issue anymore.” But, the app will argue with you. If your friend group is not so diverse (read: white), the app has a solution for that too.
Equipay wound up winning the Comedy Hack. Best part? It will actually be made into an app. Coming soon.
What’s so refreshing about this is that it uses comedy to educate people in a way that’s empowering. “You can reach people a lot quicker through comedy,” said Malbroux, “because their defenses are down.”
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