For this reason, Mom’s Equal Pay Day is May 5, LGBTQIA Equal Pay Awareness occurs in June, and women with disabilities are highlighted in October. Often, predicting one’s vulnerability to wage discrimination is not as simple as looking at their race. (One’s left wondering if Latina, Black, and Native were broken into ethnic categories as opposed to general racial classification would the reveal it same.) Humans are complex - let’s leave space to understand the variations 52 cents, and there’s a host of figures in between. Taiwanese women might make roughly $1.21, but Burmese women make. And while on paper Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) are doing better at 85 cents/per dollar further exploration reminds that this broad descriptor is a category holding a diverse set of ethnic identities. Native and Latina women make 60 and 55 cents, respectively. Unfortunately, most women of color would need to experience a significant pay jump to reach 80 cents. Native Women’s Equal Pay Day 2021 (September 8) There are several comparable ‘Equal Pay Days’:ĪAPI Women’s Equal Pay Day 2021 (March 9)īlack Women’s Equal Pay Day 2021 (August 3)

Black women – and other women of color – have been historically overlooked in conversations of race and gender because, unlike men of color or white women, they experience both simultaneously. Whereas the women’s “average” reports it takes 15 months to earn a white man’s dollar, at 63 cents, Black women require nearly five extra months of labor to catch up.īlack women’s Equal Pay Day illuminates the importance of applying an intersectional lens to discussing income and finances. Fifty-eight years later, we’re fighting the same war, with a few extra battles to consider. Though a nice gesture, the pervasive culture of workplace discrimination on sex - nor race or orientation - shifted that quickly. 63 cents, huh?īlack Women’s Equal Pay Day is one of several “Equal Pay Days” founded by The Equal Pay Today Campaign, which describes itself as “an innovative collaboration of national and state-based legal advocacy, worker justice organizations, and social justice organizations, that fight to close the gender wage gap that persists in nearly every industry and profession across the country, through strategies involving policy reform, litigation, and education and outreach.” The Equal Pay Today campaign was launched on the 50th Anniversary of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which protected against wage discrimination based on sex. It’s not hyperbolic to say that for Black women, unequal pay is a health concern. It’s about the stress of being able to afford today’s expenses when you’re already facing the cumulative overwhelm of racial disparities in every area of life. That is true across multiple fronts for Black women, who are either sole or equal contributors to their household income. Unequal pay is much bigger than Black households being able to accumulate wealth and afford future expenses. We must also consider how failure to acknowledge this history normalizes Black suffering and suggests that Black poverty is a choice. It’s an intentional consequence of systemic violence in labor, hiring, and wage discrimination, impacting Black households’ wealth and earning potential for centuries. Black exclusion from money conversations isn’t an oversight.

We’re unprepared to have impactful conversations about Black identity and pay because of the multigenerational failure to acknowledge how the legacy of racism impacts the present. Why is it necessary to capitalize the BLACK when discussing women’s Equal pay? And in a world where “average” is too often a point of reference that prioritizes whiteness, Black Women’s Equal Pay Day offers an opportunity to explore why a racial breakdown is necessary.Ĭreating a world where all can thrive means acknowledging how dual marginalization, the wealth gap, the cost and access of education, and occupational segregation have cost Black women tens of thousands of dollars each year. This awareness campaign has been highly successful at helping folks discuss the gender pay gap.īut what’s rarely communicated is that the 82 cents figure for women is an “average” that’s well above what most women of color receive. Each year in early spring, PSA’s, fanfare, and social media graphics inform us March 24 marks the end of the 15-month timeframe it took for women’s pay to catch up to men.

Equal pay day march 24