August 23 is #BlackWomenEqualPay Day 2016

August 23 is #BlackWomenEqualPay Day 2016

Here’s a sad truth in 21^st Century America: Race and gender both impact how much people get paid.

According to AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016), the pay gap affects women from all backgrounds, at all ages, and of all levels of educational achievement, although earnings and the gap vary depending on a woman’s individual situation.

Among full-time workers in 2014, Hispanic, African American, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian women had lower median annual earnings compared with non-Hispanic white and Asian American women. But within racial/ethnic groups, African American, Hispanic, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian women experienced a smaller gender pay gap compared with men in the same group than did non-Hispanic white and Asian American women.

August 23 is the symbolic day that the earnings of African American women will catch up to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts’ earnings from last year.

African American women have to work nearly an additional 8 months, or 238 days into the next year, to earn as much as white, non-Hispanic men did in the previous year alone. And based on today’s wage gap - that means African American women lose a staggering $877,480 over the course of a 40-year career compared to white, non-Hispanic men.

So if you think the 79 cent pay gap for white women is bad, the pay gap is worse for women of color at 63 cents. And the gender pay gap is worse for mothers; more than 50% of married African American mothers bring in 1/2 or more of their families' income.

Thanks to the pay gap, women struggle to pay off student loan debt even more than men do. Women in every state experience the pay gap, but in some states it’s worse than others. And women face a pay gap in nearly every occupation.

When we look at the pay gap for Black women, we find:

·       Women of color are more likely to work for minimum wage than white Americans;

·       Black women are more likely to work in the lowest-paying occupations;

·       Black women are underrepresented in the top-earning end of the labor force;

·       Black women less likely to work in the high-pay engineering & tech fields;

·       Black moms are more likely to be the sole breadwinner for their family; and

·       Black women are paid 60 percent of what male servers are paid.

And this pay gap is not a result of lack of education. While more education does help to increase women’s earnings, but it still doesn’t close the gender pay gap. Black women with BAs on average earn $10,000 less that white men with an Associate’s degree.As a result, Black women who complete college degrees are less able to pay off their student loans promptly, leaving them paying more and for a longer time than men.

This lack of opportunity is especially stark at our nation’s private and public research universities. Out of 176,468 tenured full professors, only 2% are women of color (Black, Hispanic or Native American). By contrast, white men make up 72%, white women another 17%, and men of color 8%.

If the gender and racial wage gap was eliminated tomorrow, an African American woman be able to afford 153 more weeks of food for her family. Talk about leveling the playing field!

And the situation is even worse for Hispanic and Latina women, who were paid only 54 percent of what white men were paid in 2014.

This gets to the heart of racial and gender social justice inequities for African-American and women of color in our society.

The pay gap for all women is a huge economic drag on our economy that covers the lifespan. It won’t fix itself. And while some states are working to address equal pay, that is not the whole answer. Congress can and should do more. And if Congress won’t tackle this problem, let’s tackle Congress. It is an election year after all.