On March 24, 2021 in the United States, we recognize Equal Pay Day – to acknowledge that all U.S. based women make $0.82 cents for every dollar that U.S. based men make*. The date changes each year, showing us how far into the year a woman has to work in order to earn what the average man earned the previous year. This is regardless of experience or job type.
It's important that conversations about the wage gap call out the much wider gap and deeper inequality for Women of Color (except Asian women), and how an examination of a wage gap by race highlights how, over the years, Black men in the US often earn less than White women.
Some History
This shifting observation day brings awareness to pay discrepancies between women and men for the same work. The Equal Pay Act was signed by President John F Kennedy on June 10 1963. It ‘prohibited discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers.’ This was a year before the Civil Rights Act. At the time of the Equal Pay Act, women made 59 cents for every dollar men made.
2020 Backslide for Women
While there has been some advancement over the years, that gap persists. There have also been setbacks, especially recently. 2020 was a challenging and difficult year for everyone; and it saw significant setbacks for working women. Four times as many women as men dropped out of the US labor force in September 2020, indicative of a broader trend emerging as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So Much Worse for Latina, Native and Black Women
Equal Pay Day is also observed in a number of other countries. Employers continue to fail to pay equally skilled women the same amount of pay they give to their male counterparts. And while all US-based women see only 82 cents for every dollar a US-based man earns, most women of color see an even larger gap, seeing pay that is significantly less than White, non-Hispanic men.
In 2021, it’s so important to focus on the Equal Pay Days across different demographics, to understand the wage gap faced by so many women.
• Asian Women’s Equal Pay Day – 85 cents – March 9th
• Black Women’s Equal Pay Day – 63 cents – Aug 3rd
• Native women’s Equal Pay Day – 60 cents – Sept 8th
• Latina Equal Pay Day – 55 cents – Oct 21st
Just listing the dates out doesn't do justice to the HUGE discrepancy when we take off our 'feminist' hat and focus on women of color. Asian women make out better than women as a broader group. We have more privilege in this area.
But when we look at Black, Native and Latina women, we see a gap that leads to immense human suffering. Latina women are paid less than women were in 1963 when the Equal Pay Act was signed into law. This pay gap has barely moved in the past 30 years. There hasn't been progress for this group. They are paid 30% less than white women.
Leanin.org has some good resources and visualizations to help bring this point home.
Naming and acknowledging Equal Pay Day on March 24th fails to take into account the groups of women who suffer so much more, who are so much further from equity. Women of Color, excepting Asian women, are so much further from equity. When we talk about Equal Pay Day, we need to also say, this isn't Equal Pay Day for all women. Silence on these other equal pay days marginalizes these groups. We need to raise up their experiences for the good of everyone. Tamela Gordon put it well in her post about why she, personally, is giving up on intersectional feminism:
"We can’t all be black feminists. It’s something you’re born into, it isn’t acquired. However, we can all and we should all adopt a black feminist agenda. When black women win, mankind wins."
Read More on Equal Pay Days 2021
*All Equal Pay Day dates are based on 2019 US Census Data. Equal Pay Days compare wages of different groups of women to White non-Hispanic men in the same roles, with the same experience. These numbers reflect how much they earn for every $1 earned, and the dates are how far into the year they have to work, in order to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns.
