Equal Pay Day

In 2024, Equal Pay Day will be March 12.  However, equal pay day is not the same for everyone.  Here are various equal pay days in 2024 from Equalpaytoday.org :

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day: July 9

Latina Equal Pay Day: October 3

Native Women’s Equal Pay Day:  November 21

Source: https://www.pay-equity.org/day.html

Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages and symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

Women who worked full-time made only 84 cents for every dollar that a man made in 2022, according to data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey   AAUW’s more comprehensive calculation compared all women with earnings in 2022 (including part-time and seasonal workers) and found women were paid a mere 78% of men’s wages.  

Looking closer at specific groups of women, AAUW found even more startling inequities, compared to the pay of white, non-Hispanic men:

  • Latina women workers are paid 52 cents for every dollar
  • Black women workers are paid 66 cents for every dollar
  • White women workers, who are paid 74 cents for every dollar
  • Asian American women workers are paid 89 cents for every dollar

This data underscores a grim reality: Women still face a pay gap that has, at best, stagnated over the past several years and, for some women, has widened further.

Closer to home, Gender Wage Gap reporting by US Congressional District as of April 2022, shows the median pay gap between women and men in California’s 15th Congressional District is 71%! 

Equal Pay affects more than just the weekly or monthly paycheck. It impacts the amount of pension , 401K contributions and the ultimate amount of Social Security benefit upon retirement. Because young women earn less from the start, it takes longer for them to pay off their student debts and thus impacts their ability to buy homes or make other large purchases. The above statistics are even more stark for women of color.

Read AAUW’s entire report (updated annually): The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap

You can learn more about the 2024 State of Gender Pay from PAYSCALE.

Be sure to Wear RED on Equal Pay Day to symbolize how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay!