Michael welcomes economist, data scientist, and Pipeline CEO Katica Roy to discuss why bias and inequity “sub-optimize” the economy, citing women earning nearly 60% of degrees while being promoted 21% slower and the large GDP and fiscal impacts of pay and opportunity gaps. Roy shares her family’s refugee story and connects equity to economic returns, national debt service, Social Security solvency, and taxpayers subsidizing pay gaps. They examine how policy currently puts the burden on individuals to prove inequity, contrast it with the EU’s upcoming pay transparency rules, and describe Pipeline’s behavioral-economics approach to improving equitable talent decisions. The conversation covers corporate responses to DEI pressure, Target vs. Costco, generational shifts in work expectations, AI-driven layoffs and human-agent collaboration, and closes with Roy’s key takeaways that equity is economic, not zero-sum, and rooted in measurable math.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:08 Meet Katica Roy
01:47 Katica Name Moment
02:30 Refugee Roots and Purpose
05:16 Bias Costs the Economy
07:53 Debt and Pay Gap Math
11:57 Policy Fixes and Proof
14:50 Pipeline Behavioral Design
16:59 DEI Backlash and Shareholders
22:10 Breadwinner Moms and Generations
24:23 Gen Z Rethinks College
27:01 Gen X Readiness Gap
28:34 AI Layoffs And Equity
34:39 Gen X Fatigue And Power
36:45 Hope As A Strategy
38:48 Key Equity Takeaways
41:36 Closing

Connect with Katica:
https://www.katicaroy.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katicaroy
https://www.instagram.com/katicaroy/
https://www.facebook.com/officialkaticaroy
https://x.com/katicaroy