Today – August 22 – is the day Black women’s wages finally catch up

The wage gap between women and men in the United States is persistent and unacceptable. 

Women in the United States today still make $500,000 to $1.2 million dollars less than their male co-workers over the course of their lifetimes. On average, women make only 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. 

Every year, advocates, politicians and the media draw attention to Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day highlights how many days into the new year women must work in order to catch up to their male counterparts. In 2019, that day fell on April 2.

Unfortunately, April’s Equal Pay Day tells an incomplete story because it looks at women in general. When you disaggregate for race, we can see that the disparity is even greater for women of color, who are paid significantly less than their white counterparts. The truth is that Black women only make 61 cents and Latinas only 53 cents for each dollar made by a white man.

In fact, today – August 22, 2019 – is Equal Pay Day for Black women, the day that their wages catch up to white, non-hispanic men who do the same work. Let that sink in for a minute: it takes more than eight months for Black women’s wages to catch up to their white, male co-workers. And more than four months for their wages to catch up to their white female co-workers. Latina women on average won’t catch up till they’ve worked almost an entire extra year!

That’s why, today at CREDO, we want to recognize August 22 as another Equal Pay Day and call attention to the women of color who are paid far less than white men and white women.

While the Trump administration, Republicans in Congress and corporate America continue to fight pay equity, CREDO and our members will continue to fight for equality and lift up the voices of women who deserve equal pay.