In April of every year there is an overwhelming amount of attention paid to the lack of gender pay equity since Equal Pay Day usually takes place during the month. On this day there is no shortage of tweets, posts and hashtags all demanding equal pay for equal work. Equal Pay Day is the symbolic day dedicated to raising awareness of the gender pay gap. This date is representative of how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. However, what often gets left out of that discussion is that the hallmark day in April does not apply to black women and other women of color. This year, August 7 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. So, while white women caught up on April 10 of this year, black women must wait for over half the year to pass before our wages catch up to what men made a year ago. In general, black women are paid 38 percent less than white men and 21 percent less than white women. The sad fact is that most people are either unaware or don’t care about the appalling disparity black women face with respect pay equity. LeanIn.Org partnered with Survey Monkey and the National Urban League to conduct a study which showed that one in three Americans is not aware of the pay gap between black women and white men, and half of Americans are not aware of the gap between black women and white women. Much like the feminist movement, black women are being largely ignored by the equal pay movement.

While the gender pay gap is an issue for all women, it is an especially wicked problem for black women. Black women are already economically disadvantaged and face double discrimination (race and gender) within the workforce. The additional burden of a 38 percent pay gap exacerbates the black wealth gap in America. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, median wages for black women in the United States are $36,227 per year, compared to median wages of $57,925 annually for white, non-Hispanic men. This amounts to a difference of $21,698 each year. Think about how far those additional lost wages could go to help struggling black families. In that same report, the National Partnership of Women and Families also highlighted that if the wage gap were eliminated, on average, a black woman working full time, year-round would have enough money for:

Two and a half years of child care
Nearly 2.5 additional years of tuition and fees for a four-year public university, or the full cost of tuition and fees for a two-year community college
159 more weeks of food for her family (three years’ worth)
More than 14 additional months of mortgage and utilities payments
22 more months of rent

Research shows that if black women were paid fairly, they would earn on average almost $870,00 more over the course of their career. When you also consider that more than 80 percent of black mothers are the primary earners for their families, and more than four million family households in the United States are headed by black women, you can clearly see that closing the wage gap for black women is an economic imperative and an important first step in addressing the racial wealth gap in our society.

So how do we deal with this seemingly insurmountable issue? What is clear is that black women cannot wait for America to wake up and realize that our nation’s economy would significantly benefit from the elimination of the wage gap. Even though a 2017 study conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research found that equal pay would add an additional income of $512.6 billion to the U.S. economy (even if men's wages stayed the same), the gap remains.

To date, much of the equal pay movement has been focused on awareness building campaigns and encouraging women to effectively negotiate their salaries. While these are important steps, this is only scratching the surface. Getting to pay parity must also involve addressing the corporate systems and state and federal laws that need to change. As black women we must unify and use our collective voices to push pay equality and the racial wealth gap to the top our agenda. Black women have always been at the forefront of the push for equality in our country, whether it was civil rights or social justice, we have been critical forces for change. The equal pay movement should be no different.

We need to actively engage in the political process and put pressure on our elected representatives to advance additional laws designed to protect against gender discrimination and pay inequality. Collective power is important here. To make a difference, we need to get our churches, sororities and other community service organizations to organize an effort or sign a petition to demand our government to act. While it is unlikely the current administration will do anything to address this issue, there is an opportunity to impact state laws by influencing local elections. Given the negative repercussions of income inequality within the black community, Republicans and Democrats should have a vested interest in addressing the matter. The Democratic Party, without question, owes it to black women to take up the wage gap issue given the loyalty they have enjoyed from our community. Black women have already demonstrated that when we are focused and unified we can accomplish the seemingly impossible. You don’t have to look any further than the two astonishing electoral victories last year in the South where black women were integral in securing Democratic victories for Ralph Northam and Doug Jones in deep red territory. We can have an equally important impact if we coalesce around the pay equity problem.

We should also be actively engaged in tackling the equal pay issue within Corporate America. Black women should (where available) participate in employee resource groups at work, collectively guaranteeing that the companies they work for are held accountable for addressing these issues. Specific things we should be demanding from employers include:

Ensuring the company is conducting annual salary audits to monitor and address gender-based pay differences.
Insisting on transparent pay practices and standardizing compensation processes.
Pushing employers to reduce bias in the hiring practice by using techniques like blind resumes which eliminate names from the resume.
Demanding an appropriate commitment to diversity programs like unconscious bias training for managers.
Addressing the discrimination often found within the promotion and performance management processes.

Finally, we also must be strategic when it comes to career choice. One of the biggest explanations for the wage gap is the industry or occupation chosen. Women, particularly black women are underrepresented in the most lucrative professions. In fact, a large percentage of black women are still in the “five C jobs” which are cleaning, cashiering, caring, clerical work and child-rearing — and these jobs are undervalued and underpaid comparatively. Where we have the opportunity (I recognize that it is not always a choice), we should target entering more high-paying professions like science and technology. While there is still a wage gap in tech, it is much smaller than in other fields. On average, the gender wage gap in tech is four percent.

These are just a few recommendations to address the pay inequality and wealth gap black women experience. There are many other things that should be considered, including, encouraging black female entrepreneurship and pushing for supplementary policies like universal access to paid leave and more robust child care options as both positively impact black women’s’ ability to save and maintain employment.

The gender pay gap is a societal issue, so ideally all parties would come to the table to mind the gap. However, black women can’t afford to wait; the stakes are simply too great in our community. So, with or without allies, black women must unite, organize and take initiative to ensure the equal pay movement addresses the concerns of black women, too.

Dalana Brand

Writing since June 2018 · 1 story contributed