Venus Williams Serves Up Her Best Advice for Expanding Equal Pay

When it comes to wanting equal pay, Venus Williams isn’t playing games.

Although the professional tennis player keeps her eyes on the ball while competing, Venus knows a much larger project off the court deserves so much attention. With March 15 marking Equal Pay Day, the 41-year-old athlete is using her voice to bring about change.

“The #PrivilegeTax movement is what we’ve coined as this real data that shows that women only make 82 cents for every dollar that men make and it’s a serious problem,” Venus exclusively shared with E! News. “I’m very passionate about it because this happened to me.”

When she arrived to the Grand Slams before she was 18, Venus said she found out she wasn’t being paid equal to the men competing. The realization was a “hard blow” and something she doesn’t want other young women to experience.

“I’m very excited to be partnering with many companies to close this gap, to raise awareness, to raise money at a grassroots level and also partner with Credit Karma who has made this happen within their organization in the last few years,” Venus continued. “I want to make sure that this gap has been closed.”