This year, Women’s Equal Pay Day was March 15th and Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is coming up on September 21st. The date of these Equal Pay Days changes every year to reflect the state of average pay between men and women. The goal is to get the Equal Pay Days as close to January 1st as possible. While Women’s Equal Pay Day was moved up this year—the earliest in its 26-year history—Black Women’s Equal Pay Day has actually been pushed back, indicating Black Women’s loss of income and an increased wage gap compared to their white male peers. In this blog, we will share some of the best articles about this wage gap and how to help address it.
∙ Equal Pay Gains Dampened as Wage Gaps Widen for Women of Color (Bloomberg Law) – Black women are not the only group whose pay have fallen behind—American Indian and Latinx women are in a similar boat. This article looks at this troubling pattern and possible barriers such as salary history requirements and job market segregation.
∙ How Jobs In Tech Can Close The Wage Gap For Women Of Color (Blavity) – In this op-ed, the CEO of Girls Who Code, Tarika Barrett notes that while pay inequity is deeply rooted in systemic oppression and can only truly be solved with policy, the tech industry is poised to help take the lead on this effort. With its rapidly growing pace, inherently higher paying jobs and far-reaching influence, tech can set a positive example for what it looks like to pay everyone equally.
∙ The One Story: Closing Black Women’s Equal Pay Gap (NewsOne) – One factor contributing to the widening wage gap for Black women is that they have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and recent months of inflation. This article explains why it’s going to take more than raising pay to address the systemic issues that have made that the case.
∙ How a millennial woman earned a $50K raise while switching careers and is using her experience to help close the Black pay gap (Fortune) – The articles in this roundup note that policy is a major factor in increasing wage parity. However, for the time being, career coaches like Esther Leonard are teaching Black Women how to negotiate higher salaries.
This Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is a great time for all companies to take a closer look at the employee pay scale and identify places to create more parity.
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