While far too many believe that most battles in the feminist movement were fought and won long ago, this is just not true. Women still face many disadvantages in society because of their sex, and the wage gap is one of them. That is why today, we celebrate Equal Pay Day. But, what exactly is Equal Pay Day? We’re going to tell you what you need to know.
What is Equal Pay Day?
In the United States, this date symbolizes how far into the year the average woman must work (in addition to their earnings last year) in order to have earned what the average man had earned the entire previous year, regardless of experience or job type. This year, women had to work an extra 82 days on average to bridge the wage gap.
This year, women had to work an extra 82 days on average to bridge the wage gap.
In 2021, women earn an average of 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. But the problem does not stop at gender. As Ijeoma Oluo writes in her New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race, intersectionality is an important factor in analyzing the wage gap. Some of you might think I’m speaking a different language: ‘intersectionality,’ what’s that? But I think that you’ll find the idea of intersectionality to be such an obvious part of your life that you’ll wonder how you never found a name for it before.
Let’s Talk About Intersectionality
Intersectionality emphasizes that fact that our identity is made up of many different characteristics. Yes, I am woman. But I am also white. I am heterosexual. I am not mentally or physically impaired. I had access to a good education. I was brought up in a financially and relationally stable family.
These identifying factors all fall somewhere along the hierarchy of privilege. The fact that a lot of them result in advantage rather than disadvantage does not excuse me from shedding light on the fact that the disadvantages of the wage gap are multiplied for women of color. On the contrary, my higher placement on the hierarchy of privilege demands that I must use my platform in a way that those less privileged cannot. The wage gap is not simply an issue of feminism. It is an issue of racism, sexual orientation, ableism. All of these identifying characteristics operate on their own plain, and we must consider them all to really see the full scope of any issue of social justice.
…my higher placement on the hierarchy of privilege demands that I must use my platform in a way that those less privileged cannot. The wage gap is not simply an issue of feminism. It is an issue of racism, sexual orientation, ableism.
Consider Race…
Asian women make 87 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
White women make 79 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
Black women make 63 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) women make 61 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) women make 57 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
Latina women make 55 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US.
How Has COVID-19 Changed Things?
The pandemic has only made things worse. According to NPR and AXIOS, economists are estimating that the gender wage chasm will increase by 5% due to COVID-19. This means the average female worker will earn only 76 cents for every dollar earned by men in the US. This projection is directly tied to the loss of jobs in the service sector, where employment rates of women are much greater than that of men.
This loss of representation in the workforce has the potential to set women back an entire generation in our pursuit to close the gender pay gap. This is extremely disheartening, especially when you consider the fact that at the current rate, the gender pay gap will not close until 2093.
How We Can Take Action
In January, the House of Representatives was presented with HR7, a Paycheck Fairness Act which addresses wage discrimination on the basis of sex. The act would limit an employer’s defense that a pay differential is based on a factor other than sex to only bona fide job-related factors in wage discrimination claims. It would also enhance non-retaliation prohibitions and increase penalties for violations of equal pay provisions. Additionally, it would make it unlawful to require an employee to sign a contract or waiver prohibiting the employee from disclosing information about the employee’s wages.
Visit this link to find your representatives contact information and urge them to vote ‘yes’ on the Paycheck Fairness Act. Currently, working women miss out on more than a collective $500 billion a year because of the wage gap, with individual women losing an average of $406,000 to the wage gap in their lifetime. We must put a stop to this baseless discrepancy and demand equal pay for equal work.
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